Coffin Charles, Dd

Coffin Charles, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born at Newburyport, Mass., Aug. 15, 1775, and graduated with distinction at Harvard in 1793. Having completed his theological studies, and taught for some time in Phillips Academy, he was licensed in 1799. He now visited the Southern states for his health, and, after spending some time in Virginia, was appointed vice-president of Greenville College, Tenn., in 1803. Returning to New England in 1804, he was ordained as an evangelist, and removed with his family to Greenville in 1805. In connection with his college duties, he had charge of the Harmony Church, and supplied for many years the churches in Hawkins County, at Rogersville, and at Jonesborough. In 1810 he was elected president of Greenville College, and served till 1827, when he was called to the presidency of the East Tennessee University, Knoxville. He resigned in 1833, and returned to Greenville, where he died June 3, 1853.— Sprague, Annals, 4:246.