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Samuel Merrill Woodbridge

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The Rev. Samuel Merrill Woodbridge, D.D., LL.D. (1819–1905)

The Reverend Samuel Merrill Woodbridge D.D., LL.D. (5 April 1819 – 23 June 1905) was a nineteenth-century American Reformed Christian clergyman, theologian, author, and college professor.

A graduate of New York University and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, Rev. Woodbridge preached for 16 years as a clergyman in the Reformed Church in America. After settling in New Brunswick, New Jersey, he taught for 44 years as professor of ecclesiastical history and church government at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary and for 7 years as professor of "metaphysics and philosophy of the human mind" at Rutgers College (now Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey) in New Brunswick. Rev. Woodbridge later led the seminary as "Dean of the Seminary" and "President of the Faculty" from 1883 to 1901. He was the author of three books and several published sermons and addresses covering various aspects of Christian faith, theology, church history and government.

Biography

An 1880 print of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary campus, where Rev. Woodbridge taught for 44 years.

Samuel Merrill Woodbridge was born 5 April 1819 in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He was the third of six children born to the Rev. Sylvester Woodbridge, D.D. (1790–1863) and Elizabeth Gould (d. 1851).[1][2]: p.140  According to a genealogical chart in Munsey's Magazine, Rev. Woodbridge was the 11th generation of a family of clergymen dating back to the late 15th century.[3][4] The earliest clergyman in this ancestral line, Rev. John Woodbridge (b. 1493) was a follower of John Wycliffe.[3][4]

Woodbridge attended New York University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree in 1838.[1] As an undergraduate student, Woodridge was a member of the university's secretive, all-male Eucleian Society and be elected to Phi Beta Kappa.[1] He was awarded a Master of Arts (A.M.) from the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1841 and was installed as a minister by the Reformed Church's Classis of New York.[3][5]: p.4  After his graduation, he served as pastor to congregations in South Brooklyn (1841–49), at the Second Reformed Church in Coxsackie, New York (1849–52), and at the Second Reformed Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey (1852–56).[1][5]

Rev. Woodbridge served the Second Reformed Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey for five years from 1852 to 1857.

In December 1857, Rev. Woodbridge was appointed to the faculty of two schools in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He would serve 44 years as a professor of ecclesiastical history and church government at New Brunswick Theological Seminary (from 1857 to 1901) and for 7 years as a professor of "Metaphysics and Philosophy of the Human Mind" at Rutgers College (from 1857 to 1864).[1][3][5][6]: pp.40, 397 [a] Both schools were then affiliated with the Protestant Dutch Reformed faith.[b] He was appointed by the Synod to a vacancy in both professorates caused by the death of Rev. John Ludlow, D.D. (1793–1857), on 8 September 1857.[7]: p.128  During his tenure at the seminary, Woodbridge would also provide instruction in the areas of pastoral, didactic and polemic theology.[7]: pp.414–415  He would retire from teaching in 1901 as an emeritus professor at the age of 82.[1] In 1883, the church's General Synod decided that the “oldest professor in service in the Theological Seminary at New Brunswick be styled Dean of the Seminary, and to him shall be entrusted the discipline of the Institution, according to such regulations as may be agreed upon by the Faculty.”[7]: p.134  Rev. Woodbridge led the seminary as its first "Dean of the Seminary", and subsequently as "President of the Faculty" until his retirement in 1901. Both positions were predecessors to the present seminary president.[8] During his career, Rev. Woodbridge received honorary degrees from New York University (A.M., 1841), from Union College (D.D. 1858) and from Rutgers College (A.M., 1841; D.D., 1857; LL.D. 1883).[1][6]: pp.339, 346, 362 

Rev. Woodbridge would marry twice. His first marriage was to Caroline Bergen (d. 1861) in February 1845 and the couple had one daughter, Caroline Woodbridge (b. 1845). On 20 December 1866 he married his second wife, Anna Wittaker Dayton, with whom he had two daughters, Anna Dayton Woodbridge (b. 1869) and Mary Elizabeth Woodbridge (b. 1872).[1][2]: p.192 

Samuel Merrill Woodbridge died at the age of 86 on 23 June 1905 in New Brunswick, New Jersey.[1] He was interred at a family plot in the city's Elmwood Cemetery.[9] According to church historian Charles Edward Corwin, Rev. Woodbridge was described as having a "strong personality" that "made dry subjects to glow with life," adding that Woodbridge "was very firm in the faith but his loving heart made him kindly even toward those whose opinion he considered dangerous."[3]

Works

Books

  • 1872: Analysis of Systematic Theology (1st Edition)
  • 1882: Analysis of Systematic Theology (2nd Edition)
  • 1895: Manual of Church History
  • 1896: Manual of Church Government[c]

Sermons and discourses

Various sermons, addresses, and discourses given in public by Rev. Woodbridge have been printed in newspapers and periodicals, as part of a collection of addresses in books, and as separately published pamphlets. These smaller works include:[3]

  • 1853: "Principles of Our Government: A Thanksgiving Discourse"
  • 1856: Sermon on Human Government, printed in the New Brunswick Fredonian
  • 1857: Inaugural Discourse as Professor of Ecclesiastical History
  • 1857: "On the Family" printed in Christian Intelligencer (December 1857)
  • 1865: "Power of the Bible" printed in National Preacher
  • 1867: "Address" published in Steele's Historical Discourse delivered at the Celebration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Reformed Dutch Church[10]
  • 1869: "Address at Centennial of North Reformed Dutch Church, New York City" in Steele’s Historical Discourses
  • 1871: Discourse on Benevolence given before the General Synod at Albany, printed in Christian Intelligencer (June 1871).
  • 1875: Faith: It’s True Position in the Life of Man: A Discourse, preached November 22d, 1874, in the chapel of Rutgers College.[11]
  • 1885: "Historical Theology: An Address" in David Demarest's Centennial of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church in America, formerly the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, 1784-1884[7]: pp.21–44 
  • 1894: "Characteristics of Dr. Campbell" in A Memorial of Rev. William Henry Campbell, D.D., LL.D., Late President of Rutgers College[12]
  • 1897: "Address by Professor Woodbridge" in Fortieth Anniversary of the Inauguration of the Rev. S. M. Woodbridge, D.D., LL.D., as Professor in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America at New Brunswick, 1857-1897[5]: pp.23–38 

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Raven's Catalogue refers to his appointment as "Professor of Mental Philosophy"[6]: pp.40 
  2. ^ Rutgers would later become a nonsectarian public university
  3. ^ Corwin's Manual gives the title Text-Book of Church Government[3]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Alumni Catalogue of New York University, 1833-1905: College, Applied Science and Honorary Alumni. (New York: General Alumni Society of New York University, 1906), 8.
  2. ^ a b Mitchell, Donald Grant and Mitchell, Alfred. The Woodbridge Record: Being an Account of the Descendants of the Rev. John Woodbridge of Newbury, Massachusetts. (New Haven, Connecticut: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1883).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Corwin, Charles Edward. A Manual of the Reformed Church in America (formerly Reformed Protestant Dutch Church), 1628–1922. (5th Edition – New York: Board of Publication and Bible-School Work of the Reformed Church in America, 1922), 598.
  4. ^ a b Lowell, D.O.S. "The Sons of Clergymen" in Munsey’s Magazine 37(6) (September 1907), 704-706; citing Clark, Sereno Dickenson. The New England Ministry Sixty Years Ago: The Memoir of John Woodbridge, D.D.. (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1877).
  5. ^ a b c d Fortieth Anniversary of the Inauguration of the Rev. S. M. Woodbridge, D.D., LL.D., as Professor in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed (Dutch) Church in America at New Brunswick, 1857-1897. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: New Brunswick Theological Seminary Alumni Association, 1897).
  6. ^ a b c Raven, John Howard (Rev.) (compiler). Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Rutgers College (originally Queen's College) in New Brunswick, N.J., 1766-1916. (Trenton, New Jersey: State Gazette Publishing Company, 1916).
  7. ^ a b c d Demarest, David D. Centennial of the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church in America, formerly the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, 1784-1884. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Board of Publication of the Reformed Church in America, 1885).
  8. ^ New Brunswick Theological Seminary. "NBTS Presidents" in New Brunswick Theological Seminary: In Focus - 225th Anniversary Celebration Vol. 3, Issue 1 (Fall 2009), 4.
  9. ^ Staff. Brief news item in New Brunswick Daily Times (27 June 1905), page 5, column 2.
  10. ^ Steele, Richard Holloway. Historical Discourse delivered at the Celebration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Reformed Dutch Church, New-Brunswick, N.J., October 1, 1867. (New York: John A. Gray & Green, Printers, 1867), 145–148.
  11. ^ Woodbridge, Samuel Merrill. Faith, its true position in the life of man: a discourse, preached November 22d, 1874, in the chapel of Rutgers College (New York: Board of Publications for the Reformed (Dutch) Church of America, 1875).
  12. ^ A Memorial of Rev. William Henry Campbell, D.D., LL.D., Late President of Rutgers College (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers College Board of Trustees, 1894), 33–34.

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