Thomas W. Clarke
Thomas W. Clarke [1]
a Baptist minister, was born in Brewster, Mass., Feb. 28, 1820. He was converted in early life, pursued his preparatory studies at the Leicester Academy, and at the Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me., where he graduated when about twenty-one years of age. He was ordained pastor in Nantucket, Mass., in 1851, and, served ten or eleven years there, and at Wheatland, N. Y., and Lexington, Mass.; also for several months supplying the pulpit at West Harwich. He received an appointment in the beginning of the late civil war as chaplain in. the army, and was severely wounded near New Berne, N. C. After his recovery from an amputation, president Lincoln reappointed him permanent chaplain, and he was stationed, first at a military hospital in Montpelier, Vt., and subsequently at a similar institution in Worcester, Mass. When this latter hospital was abandoned, he was appointed to an inspectorship in the custom-house in Boston.
While occupying this position, and for several years after he left it, he preached very acceptably whenever he had an opportunity. He died at Boston Highlands, Feb. 11, 1881. Mr. Clarke was a man of good abilities, genial in spirit, an ardent patriot, and devoted to the work to which he had consecrated his life. See The Watchman, March 17,1881. (J. C. S.) or his, parents had removed. He graduated from Yale College in 1837, and was soon after elected professor of Greek, in the College of Mobile, where he: spent two years, and then accepted the. presidency of that college. Resuming his theological studies, he graduated from Yale Divinity School in 1841; was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Canterbury, Conn., the same year; and in 1845 became pastor of the Second Congregational Church, Hartford. He regarded his pastorate in Hartford as the most fruitful and delightful period of his life. On account of his health, he accepted a call to the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church in New York city in 1859, and after two years became. pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, a position which he filled: with great success until the close of his life, May 23, 1871. (W. P.S.)
