Allen, Alexander Viets Griswold (04 May 1841–01 July 1908), Episcopal priest, theologian, and educator, was born in Otis, Massachusetts, the son of Ethan Allen, a teacher and Episcopal priest, and Lydia Child Burr. His father served churches in Massachusetts and Vermont. Both parents were strongly evangelical in the Episcopal manner of the time, emphasizing biblical authority and teaching more than sacramental theology—a conviction that produced conflict in several of the churches that Allen’s father served. Their piety shaped Allen’s early views, leading him to enroll at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, in 1859. Kenyon was an Episcopal institution then of an evangelical stamp. An excellent student, Allen delivered the valedictory address upon graduating in 1862 and immediately entered Bexley Hall, a theological seminary in Gambier....
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Allen, Alexander Viets Griswold (1841-1908), Episcopal priest, theologian, and educator
William L. Sachs
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Coit, Henry Augustus (1830-1895), clergyman and educator
David Hein
Coit, Henry Augustus (20 January 1830–05 February 1895), clergyman and educator, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the son of Joseph Howland Coit, a priest of the Episcopal church, and Harriet Jane Hard. He spent most of his childhood in Plattsburgh, New York, where his father was rector of Trinity Church. He attended ...
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Cutler, Timothy (1684-1765), clergyman and educator
Allen C. Guelzo
Cutler, Timothy (31 May 1684–17 August 1765), clergyman and educator, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Major John Cutler, an anchorsmith and member of the General Court, and Martha Wiswall. Although his parents were well-to-do Jacobite sympathizers, Cutler was baptized as a Congregationalist, took his A.B. at Harvard College in 1701, and was admitted to membership in the Charlestown Congregational parish in 1705. It is not clear when he decided to enter the Congregational ministry, and since he was marked as a young man “of an high, lofty, & despotic mien,” he did not promise to be overly popular as a minister among provincial New Englanders. On the other hand, that same “lofty” superiority gave him a valuable credential in the eyes of an emerging New England merchant class that was anxious to match the social allure of Church of England missions with examples of an equally elite Congregational ministry. To that end, Cutler was called in 1709 to the Congregational parish of Stratford, Connecticut, where a Church of England mission (under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) had established a small but threatening presence in the Connecticut colony. He was ordained there on 11 January 1710. One year later, he married Elizabeth Andrew; they had eight children....
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De Koven, James (1831-1879), Episcopal priest and educator
Thomas C. Reeves
De Koven, James (19 September 1831–19 March 1879), Episcopal priest and educator, was born in Middletown, Connecticut, the son of Henry Louis De Koven, a banker, and Margaret Sebor. He grew up in a large and affluent family in Brooklyn Heights, New York, and at an early age showed exceptional intellectual ability. De Koven graduated from Columbia College in 1851 and the General Theological Seminary in 1854. While in seminary he helped form a “ragged school” for poor boys that met on Sundays....
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Gallaudet, Thomas (1822-1902), Episcopal minister to the deaf
Harvey Hill
Gallaudet, Thomas (03 June 1822–27 August 1902), Episcopal minister to the deaf, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, educator of the deaf, and Sophia Fowler. Thomas Hopkins had founded the Connecticut Asylum, a school for the deaf in Hartford in 1817, and Sophia was one of its first graduates. They had little money but their work was well known and brought them into contact with the highest echelons of society. Growing up in these surroundings, Thomas early became interested in education for the deaf and particularly in communication through sign language....
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Gavin, Frank Stanton Burns (1890-1938), Episcopal theologian and church historian
Donald S. Armentrout
Gavin, Frank Stanton Burns (31 October 1890–20 March 1938), Episcopal theologian and church historian, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of William James Gavin, a physician, and Laura Adelaide Burns. In 1907 he entered the University of Cincinnati, from which he received the A.B. in 1912. While there he also took courses at Xavier University and at Hebrew Union College. In 1912 Gavin entered the General Theological Seminary in New York City; while there he also studied at Columbia University, where he was a University Fellow in Semitics (1913–1914). He received his M.A. in Semitic languages from Columbia in 1915, his S.T.B. from General Theological in 1915, and his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1922. His dissertation, “Aphraates and the Jews: A Study of the Controversial Homilies of the Persian Sage in Their Relation to Jewish Thought,” published in the ...
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Henry, Caleb Sprague (1804-1884), educator, pastor, and author
Steven L. Porter
Henry, Caleb Sprague (02 August 1804–09 March 1884), educator, pastor, and author, was born in Rutland, Massachusetts, the son of Silas Henry and Dorothy Pierce. Henry received his A.B. from Dartmouth in 1825 and later studied at Andover Theological Seminary. At twenty-four years of age, Henry was ordained a pastor in the Congregational denomination and served at churches in Greenfield, Mississippi (1829–1831), and in West Hartford, Connecticut (1833–1835). Henry was a proponent of the peace movement and in 1834 wrote the pamphlet ...
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Hodges, George (1856-1919), clergyman and educator
Gardiner H. Shattuck
Hodges, George (06 October 1856–27 May 1919), clergyman and educator, was born in Rome, New York, the son of George Frederick Hodges and Hannah Elizabeth Ballard. Hodges received his bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in 1877. After teaching for a year in London, Ontario, Canada, he entered St. Andrew’s Divinity School in Syracuse, New York. Dissatisfied with the instruction he received there, he transferred to Berkeley Divinity School in Middletown, Connecticut, from which he graduated in 1881. During his final year in seminary, he also served at a small Episcopal parish in South Glastonbury, Connecticut. He was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal church in 1881 and a priest the next year. Called to be an assistant minister at Calvary Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1881, Hodges was placed in charge of St. Stephen’s, a mission congregation under Calvary’s care. He married Anna Sargent Jennings in 1881, and they had two children. After the death of his first wife in 1897, he married Julia Shelley in 1901. They had three children....
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Lowell, Robert Traill Spence (1816-1891), Episcopal priest, educator, and author
Donald S. Armentrout
Lowell, Robert Traill Spence (08 October 1816–12 September 1891), Episcopal priest, educator, and author, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of the Reverend Charles Lowell, a Unitarian minister, and Harriett Brackett Spence. He attended the Round Hill School, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1823–1828, where he studied with Joseph Green Cogswell, the founder of the school, and ...
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Montgomery, James Alan (1866-1949), Semitist and clergyman
Cyrus H. Gordon
Montgomery, James Alan (13 June 1866–06 February 1949), Semitist and clergyman, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Thomas Harrison Montgomery and Anna Morton. In 1887 he graduated with a B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where in 1904 he also received his Ph.D., having specialized in biblical Hebrew. During the same period he studied theology at the Philadelphia Divinity School from which he was graduated in 1890 and became a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal church. In 1893 he was consecrated as a priest. That same year he married Mary Frank Owen; they had no children. He was a curate at the Church of the Holy Communion in New York City in 1892–1893; at St. Paul’s in West Philadelphia from 1893 to 1895; and at St. Peter’s in Philadelphia from 1895 to 1899. From 1899 until 1903 he was rector of the Church of the Epiphany in Germantown, also serving as assistant editor of the ...
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Newton, Joseph Fort (1876-1950), Baptist, Universalist, and Episcopal minister, lecturer, and author
Henry Warner Bowden
Newton, Joseph Fort (21 July 1876–24 January 1950), Baptist, Universalist, and Episcopal minister, lecturer, and author, was born in Decatur, Texas, the son of Lee Newton, a Baptist minister and lawyer, and Sue Green Battle. Raised according to the rigid doctrinal standards and strict moral code in place among Texas Baptists at the turn of this century, much of Newton’s life was a pilgrimage in search of gentler, more open-ended religious insight. Largely self-educated, he learned classical languages and literature with his mother’s help, and in 1895 he was ordained a Baptist minister. Later that year he entered Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where his predilection for a liberalized religious perspective became more intensified. He read widely, learning more from poets and critical essayists than from the formal syllabus prescribed for divinity students. Newton searched for a faith that could satisfy the mind while it sanctified the heart. He grew increasingly dissatisfied with theological tenets that separated churches, and in 1897 he left both the seminary and the denomination because he found sectarian exclusiveness to be absurd and reactionary dogmas embarrassing....
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Potter, Eliphalet Nott (1836-1901), educator and Episcopal clergyman
Bruce Leslie
Potter, Eliphalet Nott (20 September 1836–06 February 1901), educator and Episcopal clergyman, was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Alonzo Potter, an Episcopal clergyman, and Sarah Maria Nott. When his father became bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania the family moved to Philadelphia, where the younger Potter attended the Protestant Episcopal Academy. He then entered the preparatory department of St. James College, Maryland, but rather than matriculate in college he chose to spend two years as a sailor. That experience led him to wish to do missionary work with sailors, but Potter’s father insisted that he enroll in college. He returned to Schenectady to enroll at Union College and graduated in 1861. He spent the next year studying theology at Berkeley Divinity School in Middletown, Connecticut. He then served brief stints as a chaplain in the Union army and as a missionary in the Lehigh valley of Pennsylvania before being named rector of the Church of the Nativity in South Bethlehem. He remained in that post for seven years (1862–1869), but in that time his career turned toward education....
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Russell, James Solomon (1857-1935), educator and priest
Arthur Ben Chitty
Russell, James Solomon (20 December 1857–28 March 1935), educator and priest, was born on the Hendrick Estate in Mecklenburg County near Palmer Springs, Virginia. His father, Solomon, and his mother, Araminta (maiden name unknown), both lived as slaves on adjoining properties, with the North Carolina state line between them. With the ambiguity of slave status following ...
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Stokes, Anson Phelps (1874-1958), clergyman, educator, and historian
Earl H. Brill
Stokes, Anson Phelps (13 April 1874–13 August 1958), clergyman, educator, and historian, was born in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York, the son of Anson Phelps Stokes, a banker, and Helen Louisa Phelps. He graduated from Yale with a B.A. degree in 1896 and, having inherited a large fortune from his maternal grandfather, Isaac Newton Phelps, spent the following year traveling abroad, mostly in East Asia. Upon his return, he enrolled in the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to study for the Episcopal ministry. Before his graduation, however, ...
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Wylie, Andrew (1789-1851), college president and pastor
B. Edward McClellan
Wylie, Andrew (12 April 1789–11 November 1851), college president and pastor, was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, the son of Adam Wylie, an immigrant from county Antrim, Ireland, and a farmer in Fayette County in western Pennsylvania (his mother’s name is not known). A studious child, Wylie was educated at home and in local schools. At age fifteen he entered Jefferson College (Cannonsburg, Pa.), supporting himself in part by teaching in nearby schools. He graduated with honors in 1810 and was appointed tutor at the college. Two years later he became its president. He was licensed to preach in 1812 and ordained in the Presbyterian ministry in 1813. That year he married Margaret Ritchie; they had twelve children....
