Rufus Babcock
Rufus Babcock [1]
an eminent Baptist minister, was born at Colebrook, Conn., Sept. 18, 1798. He graduated at Brown University in the class of 1821, and soon after was appointed tutor in Columbian College, Washington, D.C. During his connection with the college, he pursued his theological studies under the direction of the president, Rev. Dr. Staughton. He was ordained in 1823 as pastor of the Baptist Church in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he remained four years, and then removed to Salem, Mass., to take charge of the First Baptist Church in that place as associate pastor with the Rev. Lucius Boker, D.D., whom he succeeded on his retirement to accept the office of corresponding secretary of the Baptist General Convention. He was chosen president of Waterville College in 1833, and occupied that position for nearly four years, when he returned to the active ministry, and was pastor in Philadelphia and in New Bedford, Mass.; a. second time in Poughkeepsie, and in Paterson, N. J., when he retired from the pastorate and performed service in the interests of some of the leading benevolent organizations of his denomination and of the American Sundayschool Union. He died in Salem, Mass., lay 4, 1875. Dr. Babcock contributed much with his pen to various magazines and religious newspapers, and published several works, among which were the following: Claims of Educationale Societies (1829):-Making Light of Christ (1830): — Memoir Of Andrew Fuller (Eod.): — Sketches Of George Leonard, Abraham Booth, And Iaeac Backus (1832): — History of Waterville College (1836): — Tale of Truth for the Young (1837): — Memoir of John Mason Peck (1858): — The Emigrant's Mother (1859). See. Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 6:387. (J. C.S.)
