Cheever, George Barrell, Dd

Cheever, George Barrell, D.D.

a Congregational and Presbyterian minister, was born in Hallowell, Maine, April 17, 1807. He was educated at Hallowell Academy and Bowdoin College, graduating in 1825; also from Andover Theological Seminary in 1830, and was ordained pastor of the Howard Street Congregational Church, Boston, in 1832. In 1835 he published, in a Salem newspaper, an allegory entitled Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery, for which he was tried for libel and imprisoned thirty days. He then resigned his pastorate and went to Europe. On his return, in 1839, he took charge of the Allen Street Presbyterian Church, New York city. In 1843 he held three public debates with J.L. O'Sullivan on capital punishment. He was in Europe in 1844. In 1845 he was principal editor of .the New York Evangelist. From 1846 to 1870 he was pastor of the Church of the Puritans, New York city, which was organized for him. He retired from the ministry in 1870, and died October 1, 1890. He was the writer of many volumes and articles, but is especially known as the composer of hymns. He delivered lectures on Pilgrim's Progress, also on Hierarchical Despotism, the latter being a reply to archbishop Hughes. See Appletons' Cyclop. of Amer. Biog. s.v.; The Magazine of Christian Literature, November, 1890, page 136.