The Friend Vol. 83 (1910), 183
William Test
William Test, --In the issue of The Friend for Eleventh Month 25th,
was a short obituary of William Test; and it seems that the life of our
dear friend called forth more than a brief mention of his death as he for several years was a beloved minister of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). For as was quoted in that meeting, which convened the day after his death: "A star has fallen, a lamp has gone out; we will miss thee, oh our brother." "A vacancy, so great, who can fill it? A mantle fallen, so large, who can bear it? We shall no more see the loving face, and hear the earnest voice, strengthening our faith, or pleading with the indifferent."
In the Eighth Month, 1908, he attended Hickory Grove Quarterly Meeting at Whittier, Iowa, with a minute liberating him to visit families in that Quarterly Meeting, all of which service he had performed excepting in
Springville Monthly Meeting. He visited about one hundred families, returning home with the sheaves of peace though very much worn, and on the thirteenth of Ninth Month, he had a stroke of paralysis, which so affected him it was with much difficulty he could walk. His suffering was more from nervousness and he was heard to remark: "Oh for the patience I have told others about." He so far recovered as to be able to ride out and a few times attended meeting, where his voice was heard in testimony and prayer to the rejoicing of the hearers. And his pleasant smile and hearty handshake were a boon to many.
About six weeks before his decease, he visited an aged friend who is an invalid, and it proved to be his last visit, as in three days he had
another attack, which deprived him of his speech, and he lay in a semiconscious state till gathered home the twelfth of Tenth Month: a sorrowing wife and six small children in the home. Two children by a former marriage, both of whom are married, and a large circle of relatives and friends are left to mourn the loss of a devoted servant of his Lord.