Laban Clark
Laban Clark [1]
a pioneer Methodist Episcopal minister, was born at Haverhill,. N.H., July 19 1778, of strict Congregational parents, who gave him a careful Calvinistic education. He spent his childhood and youth at Bradford Vt., where his associations with a Wesleyan family won him to Methodism; and on the arrival of a Methodist itinerant in the vicinity, he joined with others in forming: a society. In 1800 he was licensed to exhort, and the following year received into" the New York Conference, in which for more than half a century he occupied many of the most important stations-and -positions. In 1851 he became superannuated, which relation he held to the close of his life, Nov. 28, 1868. Mr. Clark was a very popular preacher, sound, instructive argumentative, practical. He was an extensive reader, possessed a remarkably retentive memory. He was amiable, calm, and devout. He figured prominently as one of the founders of the Methodist Episcopal Missionary society, and of Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn., where he spent his later life. .See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1869, p. 97.
