George Providence Bergen
George Providence Bergen [1]
a Presbyterian minister, was born Jan. 1, 1820, in Mercer County, Ky. He graduated from Centre College in 1846, and from Princetoi Seminary in 1849. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, April 26, 1848. Returning to Kentucky, he engaged to fill, for a few months. the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church of Covington. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Church at Springdale, O., by the Cincinnati Presbytery, May 1, 1850. He was released from his pastoral relation here in April, 1857. In the same year Mr. Bergen was urged by the Board of Domestic Missions to go, under its commission, to Omaha, Neb. He accepted the position offered. He began the erection of a church here, but financial difficulties prevented his finishing it. After two years he returned to Ohio, and in 1859 settled at Bellefontaine, and remained over four years in charge of a flourishing Church in that town. He next removed to Mt. Pleasant, Ia., and established a boarding-school for young ladies, which proved to be highly successful. He removed to Birmingham in 1863, and established a prosperous school for both sexes; and at the same time he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, where he continued until his death. A few years before his death he supplied the Church at Libertyville. He died April 11, 1876. Mr. Bergen was a pioneer of education, and has left two institutions of his planting in active operation ini Iowa. His preaching was full of sound doctrine, simple in style and fervent in manner. See Necrological-Report of Princeton Theol. Sem. 1877, p. 40.
