John Chester Backus
John Chester Backus [1]
a Presbyterian minister, was born at Wethersfield, Connecticut, September 5, 1810. He studied at Albany Academy, spent two years at Columbia College, and graduated from Yale College in 1830; studied law one year, and theology one year at New Haven, joining the Congregational Church there in the meantime; spent part of a year at Andover Theological Seminary; graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1835; was licensed to preach the same year, and ordained the next, serving meanwhile as assistant secretary of the Board of Domestic Missions. On September 16, 1836, he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at Baltimore, Maryland, and remained there until his death, April 9,1884, having been pastor emeritus from October 1875. His talents were of a high order, and few had greater influence in the Church. See Necrol. Report of Princeton Theol. Sem. 1885, page 21.
