Corwin, Edward Tanjore (12 July 1834–22 June 1914), minister and historian, was born in New York City, the son of Edward Callwell Corwin and Mary Ann Shuart. Descended on his father’s side from English founders of New Haven, Connecticut, Corwin seems to have been more influenced by his mother’s ethnic heritage. Her ancestors were Dutch, early settlers in New Amsterdam, and the whole family found sustenance in Reformed theological traditions. In 1853 Corwin graduated first in his class from the Free Academy, a school soon to be named College of the City of New York. Three years later he graduated from New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the oldest and best Dutch Reformed ministerial academy in the country. In 1856 he was also licensed by the church in Bergen, New Jersey. Staying a fourth year at the seminary, he received ordination at Paramus, New Jersey, in 1857. That same year Corwin began his first pastorate in Paramus, devoting himself to ministerial duties there until 1863. In 1861 he married Mary Esther Kipp; the couple had four children, two of whom survived to adulthood....
Article
Corwin, Edward Tanjore (1834-1914), minister and historian
Henry Warner Bowden
Article
Dubbs, Joseph Henry (1838-1910), clergyman, educator, and historian
Donald F. Durnbaugh
Dubbs, Joseph Henry (05 October 1838–01 April 1910), clergyman, educator, and historian, was born of Swiss-American parentage in rural North Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph S. Dubbs, a German Reformed pastor, and Eleanor Lerch. In his mid-teenage years he enrolled at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1856. In 1859 Dubbs completed his ministerial training at the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church at Mercersburg, which was then guided by the scholar and churchman ...
Article
Good, James Isaac (1850-1924), clergyman and educator
Henry Warner Bowden
Good, James Isaac (31 December 1850–22 January 1924), clergyman and educator, was born in York, Pennsylvania, the son of William A. Good, a clergyman, and Susan B. Eckert. Early in his life Good evidenced potential for intellectual vigor and literary expression. When he graduated with honors from Lafayette College in 1872, his work on Alexander Pope was published as the college’s Fowler Prize Essay of that year. After graduating in 1875 from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, he was ordained as a minister in the German Reformed church. He served three pastorates in Pennsylvania during the next three decades: the Heidelberg Reformed Church in York (1875–1877), the Heidelberg Reformed Church in Philadelphia (1877–1890), and the Calvary Reformed Church in Reading (1890–1905). While serving at Reading, Good also entered upon the second, and ultimately more significant, part of his career. In 1890 he began teaching in the theology department of Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania....
Article
Griffis, William Elliot (1843-1928), educator, clergyman, and author
Edward R. Beauchamp
Griffis, William Elliot (17 September 1843–05 February 1928), educator, clergyman, and author, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Captain John Limeburner Griffis, a coal dealer, and Anna Maria Hess, a pious young woman who for many years taught at an infant’s nursery school and at a Bible school for young women at the First Independent Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia....
Article
Gros, John Daniel (1737-1812), clergyman, college professor, and philosopher
Steven L. Porter
Gros, John Daniel (1737–25 May 1812), clergyman, college professor, and philosopher, was born in the Bavarian Palatinate at Webenheim, near the city of Zweibrücken, Germany, the son of Lorenz Gros and Anna Magdalena. Little is known of Gros’s upbringing and early education. His name is sometimes spelled Gross. Gros entered the University of Marburg in 1758 and then matriculated at the University of Heidelberg in 1761, partaking in theological studies. Having intentions of entering the pastoral ministry of the German Reformed church, Gros journeyed to America, landing in Philadelphia in 1764. As the North American population continued to increase, a growing need for pastors existed. Gros’s esteemed German education and some influential connections led the German Reformed Coetus of Pennsylvania to ordain him in 1765. The coetus enacted the ordination without first receiving ratification from the Dutch Church Synod in Holland, which was the mandated procedure at that time. This was a precedent-setting act, as the German Reformed denomination in America began to break free from the church authorities in Europe....
Article
Hardenbergh, Jacob Rutsen (1736?–30 October 1790), Dutch Reformed minister and first president of Queens College (later Rutgers University)
David W. Robson
Hardenbergh, Jacob Rutsen (1736?–30 October 1790), Dutch Reformed minister and first president of Queens College (later Rutgers University), Dutch Reformed minister and first president of Queens College (later Rutgers University), was born in Rosendale, New York, the son of Colonel Johannes Hardenbergh, a wealthy landowner, and Maria Dubois. Hardenbergh’s exact date of birth is not known, but his baptismal date is 22 February 1737. Raised in an evangelical Dutch Reformed household, Hardenbergh acquired some formal education at an academy in Kingston, New York, including enough classical language training to enable preparation for the ministry....
Article
Milledoler, Philip (1775-1852), Dutch Reformed minister and president of Rutgers College
David W. Robson
Milledoler, Philip (22 September 1775–22 September 1852), Dutch Reformed minister and president of Rutgers College, was born in Rhinebeck, New York, the son of John Muhlithaler and Anna Mitchell. Milledoler experienced religious conversion at fourteen, received some classical training in Boston, and graduated from Columbia College in 1793, delivering a commencement oration on natural philosophy. However, the ministry was his calling....
Article
Seelye, Julius Hawley (1824-1895), clergyman, educator, and U.S. congressman
Edward L. Lach, Jr.
Seelye, Julius Hawley (14 September 1824–12 May 1895), clergyman, educator, and U.S. congressman, was born in Bethel, Connecticut, the son of Seth Seelye, a merchant and farmer, and Abigail Taylor. Nearsighted as a child, he was mistakenly considered unintelligent by his parents, who originally planned a career in his father’s store for the boy. Seelye, however, doggedly pursued a course of self-education, and in January 1846, on the advice of a friend, he entered the freshman class at Amherst College. He graduated in 1849 and immediately began study at the Auburn Theological Seminary, completing the course in 1852. Seelye had been offered a tutorial position at Amherst in 1851 but instead went to Europe, where he studied philosophy at the University of Halle. Returning to the United States in 1853, he was ordained to the ministry on 10 August of that year in Schenectady, New York, where he held the pastorate of the First Reformed Dutch Church for the following five years. During this period he continued the study of Kantian philosophy under the direction of his uncle Dr. ...
