Clary, Dexter

Clary, Dexter, a Congregational minister, was born in Conwav, Mass., Feb. 1,1798. For a while he was a merchant in Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., and then entered upon a course of study with a view to the ministry, receiving license to preach in 1828. Under commission of the Western Domestic Missionary Society he labored a. year in, western New York. In 1829 he was ordained an evangelist at Watertown, in the Presbyterian Church, and for several years served as such in the region. about Rochester, Buffalo, and occasionally in Canada. For the purpose of studying theology he went to New Haven, Conn., in 1834. Not long after he was called to Montreal, where he labored for two years. In 1838 he went to Rockford, Ill., and in 1840 fixed his residence at Beloit, Wis. For a year after, his labors were divided between Congregational churches of these two places. The Church in Beloit having grown, he gave himself wholly to the work in that field. In September, 1850, he resigned his charge and entered the service of the American Home Missionary Society, as its superintendent for Wisconsin, an office which he filled for twenty-two years, travelling in that time about one hundred thousand miles. In the first years of his pastorate at Beloit were begun the consultations that resulted in the founding of Beloit College, of which, at its organization, he was elected one of the trustees; and. at their first meeting, in 1845, he was appointed secretary of the board and of the executive committee-positions which he occupied until his death, June 18, 1874. See Cong. Quarterly, 1876, p. 357.