Prentiss, George Lewis

PRENTISS, GEORGE LEWIS: Presbyterian; b. at Gorham, Me., May 12, 1816; d. at New York Mar. 19, 1903. He graduated at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., 1835; was assistant in Gorham Academy, 1836–37; studied theology at the universities of Halle and Berlin (1839–41); and became pastor of the South Trinitarian Church, New Bedford, Mass., 1845. In April, 1851, he was installed pastor of the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, New York; resigned on account of ill-health in the spring of 1858, and sought rest in Europe for the next two years. On his return he organized the Church of the Covenant, New York, and was pastor, 1862–73; and professor of pastoral theology, church polity, and mission work, in Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1873–97. He published A Memoir of Seargent S. Prentiss (2 vols., New York, 1855; later ed., 1879); The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss (1882); The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (3 vols., New York, 1889–99); and The Bright Side of Life (autobiographic, 2 vols., 1901).