When Pastor John Wilson turned 100 in August, he had hoped to take a horse-drawn carriage to First Christian Church and deliver the sermon that Sunday.

However, he was just too weak to make the trip, congregation member Judy Bivens said, so he spoke via video.

Wilson died Nov. 7, but on Tuesday, a horse-drawn hearse delivered his body to Ferncliff Cemetery.

“He’s going to get his horse and carriage ride,” Bivens said Tuesday as she waited outside the cemetery gate to get a glimpse.

For a man who was only four years younger than Henry Ford’s Model T, it seemed fitting that two black Percherons — each weighing more than 2,000 pounds — would escort Wilson’s remains to their final resting place.

Beginning in 1944, Wilson served as minister of First Christian for 45 years, but conducted funerals and weddings for as long as possible. In all, he officiated more than 1,500 weddings.

“He was one of the wisest men I ever knew,” Bivens said. “He was the definition of a God-loving man. Every minute, every day.”

Raised in Iowa, Wilson set out for the Cincinnati Bible Seminary in 1931, driving a Ford Model A he’d bought for $15.

He later became a trustee of the college, now known as Cincinnati Christian University. The school is home to The John A. Wilson Center for Urban and Global Outreach.

The hearse that led his funeral procession on Tuesday was crafted in 1872, and is one of only six known to still be in operation in Ohio, said its driver, Bob Skelton of Skelton’s Carriage Service in South Vienna.

Skelton drives the ornate hearse — with its kerosene lanterns made of pure silver — for funerals around the state.

“People pull over very quietly,” he said. “Everyone will have a camera out.”