Jared Bell Waterbury
Jared Bell Waterbury [1]
a Presbyterian minister, was born in the city of New York, Aug. 11, 1799. He was converted at the age of seventeen, and united with the Rutgers Street Presbyterian Church, becoming at once an earnest Christian worker. He entered Yale College and graduated with high honors in 1822, and in the autumn of the same year he entered upon his theological studies in Princeton Seminary, where he remained two years. On April 15, 1823, he was taken under the care of the New York Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry, and that body licensed him to preach in 1825 and ordained him sine titulo Nov. 13 of the same year. Shortly after completing his theological studies, he accepted an agency for the American Bible Society, and made a highly successful and useful tour in its interests through the Southern States. In the year 1826 he commenced preaching at Hatfield, Mass.; and having been dismissed by the Presbytery of New York, April 18, 1827, to the Association of Northampton, Mass., was shortly after installed pastor of the Hatfield Church. While residing there, he published a small volume entitled Advice to a Young Christian, by a Village Pastor, With a very interesting introduction by Dr. Archibald Alexander.
This little book was widely read and very useful. In 1829 he was called to Portsmouth, N. H., where he was installed shortly after, and remained for two years in a happy and useful ministry which he was compelled to resign on account of his health. For a short time he resided in Brooklyn, at the house of his father-in-law, the late Zachariah Lewis. In the fall of 1832, he began to supply the Presbyterian Church at Hudson, N.Y., and in the spring accepted a call from and was installed its pastor. Here he labored fourteen years, and his earnest and fervent pulpit efforts, his genial and social manners, glowing zeal and godly life, secured for him the unbounded affection of the entire community. During his ministry, a large and beautiful church was erected, and a great number of persons, many of them of high social position and intelligence, were gathered into the church.
In 1846 he accepted a call to the Bowdoin Street Church, Boston, where he was installed pastor, and where he continued to labor until 1857, when he resigned his charge and removed to Stamford, Conn., where he lived over two years in retirement, but preaching occasionally as opportunity offered. In 1859 he supplied the pulpit of the Central Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N.Y., during the absence of its pastor (Dr. Rockwell) in Europe, and thenceforward to the end of his life he made that city his home. During the late war of the Rebellion, Dr. Waterbury was made secretary of the Brooklyn branch of the Christian Commission, in which position he rendered valuable and effective service, collecting books and pamphlets to be sent to the Union army, and superintending the sending-out of ministers to supplement the work of the regular chaplains in the army He was afterwards appointed city missionary in Brooklyn. He had a large tent erected on Fort Greene and in Lefferts Park, where on Sundays the outside multitude were congregated to hear the Gospel. Misfortune clouded his last days. His ample property was swept away at a stroke, and his health was gone; yet in the midst of all he never lost his cheerfulness or trust in God, but rested calmly on the never-failing promises. Dr. Waterbury was a man of warm piety, and always watchful for opportunities of winning souls to Christ. As a pastor, he was faithful, sympathetic, and earnest. In his prime he as a preacher of unusual excellence and power. He wrote much for the religious press, published quite a number of sermons and tracts, besides six or eight volumes of works on various religious subjects. Among his last utterances was this — "Jesus is with me." He died on Sabbath morning, Dec. 31, 1876. (W. P. S.).
