USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Necrology, 1890-1900 (Andover Theological Seminary) > Part 26
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Mr. Huntington was married, June 30, 1859, to Geneva Crosby, of Cald- well, N. Y., daughter of David Green Crosby and Eliza Marvin. She survives him, with two sons and two daughters, one of the sons, a business man in Buf- falo, being a lay reader in the Episcopal Church, and the other a graduate of the present year at Hobart College, in preparation for the ministry.
Mr. Huntington died of pneumonia, at Buffalo, N. Y., December 22, 1895, aged sixty-seven years, five months, and twenty-two days.
CLASS OF 1854.
William Sewall. (Non-graduate.)
Son of William Sewall and Sarah Ladd; born in Boston, December 14, 1827; prepared for college at Roxbury Latin School and the Hopkins Classical School, Cambridge; graduated at Harvard College, 1849; studied in this Seminary, 1851-52 ; taught in Lewiston Falls Academy, Auburn, Me., 1849- 1851 ; graduated at Bangor Theological Seminary, 1854; licensed to preach by the Penobscot (Me.) Association, 1853; returned to Andover as resident licentiate, 1854-55. He was ordained in Cambridge, May 2, 1855; was successively pastor in Lunenburg, Vt., 1855-65, Norwich, Vt., 1865-76, and Littleton, Mass., 1877- 1882; supplied temporarily in Saxton's River, Vt., 1882-83, Underhill, Vt., 1883, South Royalton, Vt., 1884, and Durham, Ct., 1885; pastor, Charlton, Mass., 1886-90, Templeton, Mass., 1890-92; from 1892 resided with his son at St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo.
Prof. Jotham B. Sewall, of South Braintree, Mass., a classmate of his cousin both here and at Bangor, writes thus of him : " He was constitutionally of a sunny and cheerful disposition, very unselfish, benevolent to his own harm. These traits, backed by a conscience quick to respond to a sense of duty, made him a loved friend and a welcomed pastor. His religious life began at a very early date -in his boyhood-and in its simplicity, purity, and steadfastness it was like the steady flowing stream increasing in volume to its end. To
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preach the gospel of Jesus Christ was his love, and it was a gospel of love which he preached, both in word and in deed, to the end of his life."
Mr. Sewall was married, May 16, 1855, to Caroline Harod Titcomb, of Lew- iston, Me., daughter of Silas Titcomb and Hannah Sawyer ; she died December 28, 1857 ; married, second, October 20, 1858, Mrs. Mary Butters Davee, daugh- ter of James Folsom and Mary Butters, of Exeter, Me., and widow of Solomon T. Davee, of Portland, Me .; she died August 10, 1881 ; married, third, April 5, 1883, Mrs. Mary Brewer Adams, daughter of Capt. Silas Martin and Margaret Crawford, of Wilmington, N. C., and widow of Samuel Adams, Jr., of Castine, Me .; she died October 12, 1892. He had one son and one daughter; the daughter died in infancy; the son, Rev. John Ladd Sewall, was a graduate of this Seminary in 1882.
Mr. Sewall died of general anasarca, at Kansas City, Mo., May 15, 1896, aged sixty-eight years, five months, and one day.
OLASS OF 1856.
Amos Howe Johnson, M.D.
Son of Samuel Johnson and Charlotte Abigail Howe; born in Boston, August 4, 1831 ; prepared for college at Chauncey Hall School, Boston, Brook- field (Mass.) Family School, and Phillips Academy, Andover; graduated at Harvard College, 1853; took the full course in this Seminary, 1853-56; licensed to preach by the Essex South Association at Salem, March 4, 1856. He was ordained over the church in Middleton, Mass., January 1, 1857, and remained there until the autumn of 1861. Retiring from the ministry on account of a throat trouble, he studied medicine in Harvard Medical School, 1862-65, sup- plementing this preparation a few years later by two years of study in Berlin and Vienna. He settled in Salem in 1866, and was a successful and beloved physician there until his death.
Dr. Johnson was for many years secretary and for two years president of the Essex South District Medical Society. He was the orator of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society in 1883, and its president, 1890-92, having also repre- sented it as a delegate to the International Medical Congress in Philadelphia in 1876. He was an associate member of the Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society, for fifteen years one of the physicians of Salem Hospital, and consulting physi- cian of Danvers Asylum for the Insane from its establishment. He was secre- tary of the Essex Institute, member of the Salem School Board three years, president of the Essex Congregational Club two years, and for over twenty years a deacon of the South Church, Salem. While a resident of Middleton, in 1862, he was a representative in the legislature. In 1875 he delivered a course of lectures in this Seminary on "The Relations of Physiology to Religious Experience." He was also a frequent contributor to the reports of the Massa- chusetts State Board of Health. He was a brother of Rev. Francis H. Johnson, of Andover, of the Class of 1861.
Rev. De Witt S. Clark, D.D., pastor of the Tabernacle Church, Salem (Class of 1868), writes : "Dr. Johnson was an auspicious illustration of the wis- dom of one's following his bent in his life work. His preparation for the minis- try was made in obedience to the wishes of his friends. He was successful in
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his brief pastorate, where the members of his first and only parish still speak of him in terms of admiration and affection. Still, he felt he was not in his proper calling. Entering on the practice of medicine, after a thorough course of study at home, with the subsequent advantages of the best schools and hospitals of Europe, he became an enthusiast in his profession. His knowledge and skill and his open mind for the newer discoveries and methods in therapeutics gave him wide influence among his fellow practitioners. He was universally respected and much beloved by those among whom his services were rendered. Easily and without seeking the distinction, he became one of the 'first citizens.' This was in no small degree due to his uniform kindness, courtesy, and self- sacrificing interest in any and all who sought his aid, but also to his quiet, firm, and beautiful exhibition of Christian faith. Religion and science were in no sense inimical, as he knew each. His reasons for the belief he had in either were ready and weighty. He was ever willing to stand for the best things in the community and to lend all the influence of his word, no less than his exam- ple, to secure and maintain them. The church of Christ was dear to him, He magnified and adorned the office of deacon. He gladly gave time, money, counsel, and prayers for its upbuilding. The vacancy caused by his early death - not only in that of which he was a member, but in sister churches - is hard to fill."
Dr. Johnson was married, September 22, 1859, to Frances Seymour Benjamin, of Brookfield, Mass., daughter of Rev. Nathan Benjamin, mission- ary in Turkey, and Mary Gladding Wheeler. She survives him, with four sons and two daughters.
Dr. Johnson died of cancer of the stomach, May 12, 1896, aged sixty-five years, one month, and eight days.
George Blagden Safford, D.D.
Son of Dea. Daniel Safford and Mary (Smith) Boardman ; born in Boston, Mass., January 6, 1832; fitted for college at the Boston Latin School ; gradu- ated at Yale College, 1852; taught in the Deaf and Dumb Institution, New York City, 1852-53; took the full course in this Seminary, 1853-56; licensed to preach by the Essex South Association, March 4, 1856; studied here as resi- dent licentiate, 1856-58. He was ordained at Northbridge, Mass., September 2, 1858, and was acting pastor of the First Church in that town, 1858-60; pastor of the Third Church, Burlington, Vt., for twenty-two years, 1860-82; without charge, at Andover, 1882-84 ; secretary of American and Christian Union, New York, 1884-85; pastor, Eikhart, Ind., 1887-89; secretary of Bureau of Chari- ties, Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1890.
Mr. Safford received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Vermont in 1878. His lifelong friend, Rev. Prof. J. Henry Thayer, D.D., of Cambridge (Class of 1857), sends the following tribute : "Having known Dr. Safford since the days when we recited our Latin Grammar together where the 'Parker House' now stands in Boston, and seen him for the last time only a few weeks before his death, I feel that - even after due abatement on the score of friendship - I have warrant for the statement that he was no ordinary man. A superficial acquaintance would not indorse this estimate of him, nor would a chance attendant on his pulpit ministrations. Indeed, it may be doubted
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whether he made the wisest use of his gifts in becoming a preacher. A certain lack of resonance in his voice and of magnetic contagion in his public address made him fail at first of that appreciation which his thoughtful sermons and pastoral wisdom and courtesy were sure to win for him when he became better known. Had circumstances permitted him to carry out his early purpose of going as a missionary to India, his speculative acuteness, executive ability, untiring activity, and inventive ingenuity must have rendered him eminently successful. Even in his Seminary days his insight, boldness, and logical se- quaciousness as a thinker were generally recognized, and these gifts were sup- plemented by unusual mathematical aptitude and mechanical skill. Had he accepted the professorship of mathematics offered him in a New England col- lege, no one of his friends would have felt a misgiving about his success. In the oversight of the work of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities, his punctilious accuracy and unsparing fidelity in things little and great have left a vacancy hard to fill.
" But Dr. Safford deserved most honor and will be best remembered for his sterling character. As well might one turn the sun from its course as to induce him to swerve from a conviction of duty. Many a time did his loyalty to conscience become positively heroic. Striking instances could be given, were there room for them, in which he singly, and sometimes at considerable per- sonal peril, stood forth as the champion of morality and religion. And through all he commanded the respect even of his antagonists by his invariable fairness and courtesy. No opponent could ever accuse him of anything underhanded or dishonorable. He took defeat with sweetness, and bore abuse without man- ifested resentment. Seldom did he ever verge towards a lapse of temper. In short, in all that goes to make up a clear-headed, firm, courteous, faithful Christian manhood, he was exceptionally rich, and many of his survivors will join the writer in thanking God for the privilege of having known him."
Dr. Safford was married, June 28, 1858, to Mary Ballard Gould, of An- dover, Mass., daughter of Dea. Abraham J. Gould and Mary (Ballard) Brown. She survives him, with one son and two daughters, one daughter having died, at the age of seventeen, August 27, 1883.
Dr. Safford died of heart failure, following typhoid fever, at Brooklyn, N. Y., October 24, 1895, aged sixty-three years, nine months, and eighteen days.
·James White. (Non-graduate.)
Son of Joseph White and Sophia Huntington; born in Hinsdale, Mass., July 9, 1828 ; prepared for college at Williston Seminary; graduated at Wil- liams College, 1851 ; instructor in Williston Seminary, 1851-53; in this Semi- nary, 1853-55, until disease of the eyes compelled him to discontinue study. He then went to Boston and engaged in business, being a salesman in the house of White, Brown & Davis until 1864, when he became a partner in the new firm of White, Brown & Co., importers, Boston and New York. From 1886 to the time of his death he was the treasurer of Williams College and re- sided in Williamstown.
He was one of the Boston representatives in the State legislature in 1876 and 1877 and a member of the State Senate in 1878 and 1879. He served as a
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deacon of Central Church, Boston, for thirty years and for a long period as superintendent of its Sunday school. Rev. Daniel Merriman, D.D., of Worces- ter, Mass. (Class of 1868), furnishes this tribute to the character of his friend : "Mr. White was from sturdy Berkshire stock, abounding in the best New Eng- land traits. This fine inheritance he early consecrated to the service of his Lord, and all his life he was characterized by a strong, quiet, and beautiful piety, 'rich in saving common sense,' unselfish, cheerful, sympathetic, and keenly alive to duty. In the preparatory school, in college, as a teacher, and in his short experience as a theological student he took high rank as a scholar, and would unquestionably have obtained great usefulness in the ministry had not his very zeal for the most thorough preparation brought on an affection of the eyes, which at once forced him to abandon all study and all his life disabled him even for much reading. This was a great disappointment, but it did not change the spirit or the fervor, but only the direction of his consecration. His whole life was the exercise of a genuine ministry. As a highly successful business man, as an influential legislator, as the trusted counselor and leader in all good causes, he was 'not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.'
" He loved the church with singular devotion. For many years as deacon of the Central Church in Boston he was a model, and strangers recalled with gratitude the bright face and gracious manner with which he waited in God's house. The inner beauty and kindliness of his soul shone out in the discharge of the humblest duties. He was 'a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men.' His dearest friends were among ministers, missionaries, and teachers, and he was always an appreciative and generous helper to them and their interests. It was, however, as trustee and treasurer of his alma mater that Mr. White dur- ing the last ten years of his life rendered the most conspicuous service. The work suited him. He loved the college with a most loyal devotion. He threw himself into all its interests with abounding zeal, with unflagging industry, and with a tact and sympathy which were equal to all occasions. No duty was too small, no burden too great, no drudgery too severe, so long as the college could be benefited. He wore himself out in its service, and its recent prosperity is largely due to him.
" James (as his intimates delighted to call him) was a loved and loving friend, abundant and fair in all the sweet and steadfast virtues that are of heaven; and when at last he calmly laid down his work, he had finished - though not as he had once expected, in the pulpit and pastoral office - a noble ministry."
Mr. White was married, January 22, 1856, to Harriet Cornelia Kittredge, of Hinsdale, Mass., daughter of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Kittredge and Harriet Marsh, who survives him, with one son and one daughter.
He died of anæmia, at Williamstown, Mass., September 3, 1895, aged sixty-seven years, one month, and twenty-four days.
CLASS OF 1857.
Sylvester Dana Storrs.
Son of Dea. Jesse Storrs and Hannah Hyde ; born in Virgil, N. Y., Sep- tember 11, 1820; prepared for college at Cortland (N. Y.) Academy ; graduated
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at Dartmouth College, 1851 ; taught a private school at West Duxbury, Mass., 1851-54; took the full course in this Seminary, 1854-57 ; licensed by the Mid- dlesex South Association at Framingham, Mass., January 13, 1857; went with three of his classmates, Richard Cordley, Grosvenor C. Morse, and Roswell D. Parker, to Kansas under the Home Missionary Society; ordained at Quindaro, January 27, 1858, and remained until 1862, being also acting pastor in Wyandotte, I8 58-59 ; acting pastor, Atchison, 1862-68; acting pastor in Quindaro and home missionary in that region, 1869-72 ; superintendent of Home Missionary Soci- ety for Kansas, with residence at Topeka, 1872-75 ; district superintendent of American Bible Society for Kansas, 1885-91 ; afterwards without charge, still residing at Topeka.
Mr. Storrs was a trustee of Washburn College in Kansas from 1878 to 1883. Rev. Richard Cordley, D.D., a Seminary classmate and fellow laborer for many years in Kansas, writes : " He entered Andover Seminary in 1854, and besides more than maintaining himself he taught in two Sunday schools, preached often in neglected neighborhoods, and engaged in various other missionary and benev- olent work. In his junior year, when the Kansas troubles were exciting general interest, he suggested the idea of a Kansas band. A Kansas prayer meeting was held in his room every Wednesday evening for nearly two years. On his graduation he and three classmates went at once to Kansas. He was ordained at Quindaro by the first council that ever assembled in the territory. In 1862 he found the church at Atchison worshiping in the basement of an unfinished building, the members few, and the congregation small. The town was orig- inally a pro-slavery town, and the church was nicknamed the 'nigger church ; ' in five years he lifted it out of the basement into a finished audience room, and made it a strong and influential church. The twelve years of his service as superintendent of missions may be considered the great work of his life. Dur- ing this period Kansas made her greatest growth. New communities were being established in all directions. He was always on the alert, and spared neither time nor toil to meet the demands of his immense field. His splendid physique stood him in good stead. His custom was to travel nights, that he might have the day for labor. He thus was able to reach widely separated fields. In a single week he would sometimes reach fields three hundred miles apart. When he entered the service there was scarcely a church in the western two thirds of the State; when he left the work that whole region was dotted over with churches. When he began there were seventy-eight Congregational churches in Kansas; when he closed there were one hundred and eighty-nine. Few men could have endured the tremendous strain that was continually upon him. In the peculiar and difficult work of his position his fine judgment was of great service. In combining the diverse elements of a frontier town his practical good sense never failed him, nor his other marked characteristics of tireless energy, unflinching fidelity, and unfaltering faith. Such a man needs no monu- ment but the work he did, and no memorial but the life he led."
Rev. Dr. L. H. Cobb, of New York City, another Seminary classmate, writes : " He was one of the most devoted, unselfish, and diligent men on the frontier."
He was married, November 12, 1857, to Fanny J. Terry, of Unionville, Ohio, daughter of Rev. Parshall Terry and Fannie Buel Howell. She survives him, with two sons and two daughters, two children having died in infancy; one
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of the daughters was for several years an instructor in Washburn College; the other and one of the sons are practicing physicians in Kansas.
He died of pneumonia, at Topeka, Kan., March 7, 1896, aged seventy-five years, five months, and twenty-six days.
CLASS OF 1859.
Edward Alfred Smith.
Son of Isaac Edward Smith and Emily Walker ; born in East Woodstock, Ct., July 22, 1835 ; prepared for college at the Russell School, New Haven, Ct .; graduated at Yale College, 1856 ; studied in Yale Divinity School, 1856-57, and graduated at this Seminary, 1859; licensed to preach by the New Haven East Association, at Madison, Ct., May 25, 1858; studied in the University of Göttin- gen, 1860, and University of Halle, 1861-62. Returning to this country in the midst of the War of the Rebellion, he enlisted as a volunteer in putting down the New York riots in 1863, and was in the service of the United States Sanitary Commission in Virginia in 1864. He was ordained at West Springfield, Mass., November 13, 1865, and was acting pastor of the Second Church, Chester, Mass., which he had already been supplying for several months, until 1874. He was then pastor in Farmington, Ct., for nearly fourteen years, resigning his charge there in December, 1887, and removing his residence in the spring of 1888 to Hartford, Ct., where he remained until his death.
Mr. Smith was a Fellow of Yale College from 1889, and also served for sev- eral years on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Home Missionary Soci- ety. His only publications were a sketch of President Porter, of Yale, and a paper on the relation of the church at Farmington to its daughter churches. The following tribute is quoted from an article in the Hartford Courant, written by Rev. George L. Walker, D.D., of Hartford, Ct. (Class of 1858, and one of the Seminary Board of Visitors) : "The bald outline of the main visible facts of Mr. Smith's history conveys but little impression of his sweetness, the grace and benevolence with which such facts were illuminated and beautified to all who were brought into intimate contact with the life to which they belonged. Extremely modest and almost diffident, Mr. Smith had resources, scholarship, and ability which a chance acquaintance would hardly surmise, but which were, to those who knew him well, clearly recognized and rejoiced in. A man of most tender sensibilities, his pastorates were marked by the best qualities of ministe- rial service; and the hearts of the people to whom he ministered are full of lov- ing memories of his gentle faithfulness. As a preacher he was clear, instructive, tender, and persuasive. He was remarkably uplifting and helpful in prayer. His own faith and hope had power to a singular degree to uplift the hope and faith of others."
Mr. Smith was married, March 3, 1865, to Mrs. Melissa (Knox) Heath, of Chester, Mass., daughter of Charles William Knox and Olive Clark, and widow of Theodore Lyman Heath. She survives him, with two sons, one of whom is a graduate of Yale, the other in course of preparation for college.
Mr. Smith died of heart disease, at Hartford, Ct., October 2, 1895, aged sixty years, three months, and four days.
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OLASS OF 1862.
Daniel Augustus Miles. (Resident Licentiate.)
Son of Willard Moore Miles and Alice Browning, and brother of Rev. James B. Miles, D.D., of the Class of 1853; born in Rutland, Mass., April 2, 1835; fitted for college at Worcester (Mass.) High School; graduated at Yale College, 1858, and at the Yale Divinity School, 1861 ; licensed by the New Haven Central Association, 1860; resident licentiate in this Seminary, 1861-62. While filling a temporary engagement to preach in Maine in 1863, he enlisted in the Sth Regiment of Maine Volunteers and was in active service until wounded in battle near Bermuda Hundred, Va., May 20, 1864. He was then in hospitals at Hampton, Va., and Portsmouth Grove, R. I. While on furlough at home, he was ordained at the Central Church, Worcester, July 27, 1864, in expectation of appointment as army chaplain. Returning to the army in the following December, he acted as chaplain, though still a private in the service, until he was commissioned in February, 1865, as chaplain of the 4th Regiment, New Jersey Infantry, and served as such until his discharge, July 9, 1865. He was then in the employ of the American Missionary Association, among the freedmen at Woodstock and Arlington, Va., 1865-66, and of the Home Mis- sionary Society, at Forest Grove, Ore., 1866-68. His health unfitted him for subsequent ministerial service, and he lived in retirement at Auburn and West- boro, Mass., until his death.
He was married, December 25, 1867, to Elizabeth Waterman Wilcox, of Providence, R. I., daughter of Isaac Wilcox and Clarissa Brownell, who sur- vives him. Their only child, a daughter, died in 1882, at the age of twelve years.
He died of apoplexy, at Westboro, Mass., June 10, 1895, aged sixty years, two months, and eight days.
CLASS OF 1863.
James Wakeman Hubbell, D.D.
Son of Dea. Wakeman Hubbell and Julia Lynes; born in Wilton, Ct., March 29, 1835; prepared for college at Wilton Academy; graduated at Yale College, 1857 ; taught in Stamford and Norfolk, Ct., 1857-59; studied in Union Seminary, 1859-60, and in this Seminary, 1860-61 and 1862-63; acting pastor, Plainville, Ct., 1863-64 ; ordained over church in Milford, Ct., September 21, 1864, and remained there five years ; pastor of College St. Church, New Haven, Ct., 1869-76; acting pastor of North Church, Portsmouth, N. H., 1877-79; pastor of First Church, Danbury, Ct., 1879-86; pastor of First Church, Mans- field, Ohio, 1886-96.
Mr. Hubbell was the brother of Rev. Henry L. Hubbell, D.D., president of Lake Charles College, Louisiana (Class of 1859). He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Marietta College, 1890. There has not been time since hearing of his death to secure a tribute from any of his classmates, but the testimony of the memorial services at Mansfield and the resolutions of the Ministerial Association of the city warmly eulogize his character and work. An obituary notice in the Waterbury (Ct.) American, by Rev. J. G. Davenport, says : "A man of graceful speech and native eloquence, always knowing the
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right thing to say, and saying it, bright and humorous and impressive, he was an acceptable speaker, not only in the pulpit, but outside of it. During the college vacations the announcement that James Hubbell would speak always crowded the place with his old friends. When in his later years he preached in the pulpit of his native town, we who were younger looked up to him as a marvel and a model. His especial strength lay in the possession of a most genial and affectionate spirit. Excellent as a preacher, it was as a pastor that he was preëminent, by his personal influence winning to the high standards of duty and privilege that were his own. Few ministers of the gospel are more generally and deeply loved than was he."
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