Gildersleeve, Benjamin, Dd

Gildersleeve, Benjamin, D.D.

a Presbyterian minister, was born near Norwalk, Connecticut, January 5, 1791. He graduated from Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1814; the same year removed to Georgian and began to teach in Mount Zion Academy; in 1817 he entered Princeton Seminary, and remained there a little over one year; in 1819 commenced editing a paper called The Missionary; in 1820 was ordained by Hopewell Presbytery, at Athens, Georgia; in 1826 removed to Charleston, S.C., and became editor of The Christian Observer, which post he held until 1845; then he removed to Richmond, Virginia, where he was sole editor of The Watchman and Observer, and then co-editor of The Central Presbyterian. During his residence in Richmond he preached wherever he found an open door, especially in the Virginia penitentiary. He died June 20, 1875. At seventy-five blindness began to come upon him, and he then applied himself to the memorizing of large portions of Scripture and the best hymns, that he might be able to continue his ministry long after his eyesight was gone. In all places where he could find hearers he was abundant in labors. See Necrol. Report of Princeton Theol. Sem. 1876, page 8.