Brainerd, Davis Smith

Brainerd, Davis Smith a Congregational minister, was born October 12, 1812, at Haddam, Connecticut. He was licensed to preach May 30, 1837, by the Association of the Western District of New Haven County. In 1829 he went to Munson, Mass., and there completed his. preparations for college. He graduated at Yale College in 1834, and entered Princeton Seminary in the fall of the same year. After one year in Princeton he continued his theological studies at New Haven, and afterwards spent part of a year at Andover, Massachusetts. In the autumn of 1840 Mr. Brainerd was invited to preach at the First Congregational Church of Lyme, Conn., and June 30, 1841, was ordained and installed as pastor of that Church by the Middlesex Association of Connecticut. He remained pastor of this Church until his death, April 30, 1875. The Church at Lyme enjoyed much spiritual prosperity under Mr. Brainerd's ministry. He took much interest in the educational and other interests of the town. In 1861 he was elected a fellow of Yale College, and in 1867 a member of its prudential committee. He was a man of lovely Christian spirit, a sound theologian, a faithful pastor, and secured in an uncommon degree the confidence of his people. See Necrological Report of Princeton Theol. Sem. 1877, page 33.