Dickinson, Austin

Dickinson, Austin a Congregational minister, was born at Amherst, Mass., Feb. 15, 1791. He graduated at Dartmouth 1813; studied theology at Princeton; was admitted to the ministry Feb. 2, 1819, and traveled south for his health. He came North in 1822, and became agent for Amherst College, and was very efficient and successful. "Besides being largely successful in raising the charity fund of $50,000, which has been a source of permanent prosperity to the college, and $30,000 for general purposes, he exerted as much influence as any other man in obtaining a charter for the college" (Sprague). In 1826 he started the "National Preacher" in New York, and was its editor until 1838. In 1844 he began writing religious articles for the secular press, and continued at this useful task until the end of his life, Aug. 14, 1849.Sprague, Annals, 2:674.