Blythe, Joseph William

Blythe, Joseph William a Presbyterian minister, was born at Lexington, Ky., Feb. 21, 1808. He graduated from Transylvania University in 1825, and afterwards pursued his studies as post-graduate at Harvard University, where he also studied medicine. He entered Princeton Seminary in 1827, and graduated after three years. He was licensed by the New Brunswick Presbytery, Feb. 2, 1831. In 1832 he was dismissed to West Lexington Presbytery, and was ordained as an evangelist. For two years he labored as a missionary in connection with the General Assembly's Board of Domestic Missions. In 1833 he was called to be pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa. He served for a time as agent of the Western Foreign Missionary Society. He then accepted a call to Monroe, Mich.; and in February, 1839, he was installed by the New Brunswick Presbytery over the Second Church of Cranbury, N. J., and there spent a useful period of over sixteen years. In 1856 he removed to Indiana, and became pastor of the Church at Vincennes, which he served for two years, when, on account of ill-health, he removed to Hanover, where he resided the thirteen years following. From 1858 to 1860 he acted as agent for Hanover College. In 1862 he was appointed by president Lincoln to be a post-chaplain in the United States army. After leaving the army, he served the churches of Graham and Smyrna for a year and a half, and then the churches of Pleasant, Jefferson, and New Philadelphia. In 1872 he became pastor of a Church at Charleston, Clarke Co., and here he continued till his death. He died April 25, 1875. Mr. Blythe was an intelligent and wise counsellor, and a devoted man of God. See Necrological Report of the Princeton Theological Seminary, 1876, p. 15.