Balentine, Hamilton

Balentine, Hamilton, a Presbyterian minister, was born January, 1817, at Churchtown, Lancaster Co., Pa. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, Feb. 2, 1848, and ordained as an evangelist by the same presbytery, May 29, 1848. He prepared for college at Lawrenceville, N. J. He graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1845, and in the same year entered Princeton Seminary, and graduated in 1848. Having devoted his life to the foreign missionary work, and an urgent call having come for help to the Indian missions, he went to Kowetah, a station among the. Creek Indians, and devoted himself to this work. Next year he was appointed to assist in giving instruction at Spencer Academy, among the Choctaws. In 1852 he opened a school for females among the Chickasaws. He also had charge of the boarding-school, and labored as an evangelist in the surrounding country. He died Feb. 21, 1876. See Necrolog. Report of Princeton Theological Seminary, 1878, p. 55.