Peabody, William Bourn Oliver

Peabody, William Bourn Oliver D.D., a Unitarian clergyman, was born at Exeter, N. H., July 9, 1799. He entered Harvard University in 1813, and after graduation also studied theology at Cambridge. He was ordained to preach in Springfield Oct. 12,1820. He was a preacher of so-called liberal doctrines, but he avoided controversy, and sought only to do good. In 1823 he published a Poetical Catechism for the Young. Several pieces were subjoined to this catechism, including the hymn found in some of our principal collections entitled Autumn Evening — "Behold the western evening sky." Dr. Peabody's tastes extended over a wide field, including poetry, biography, theology, and natural history. In 1839 he supplied the account of the birds in the report of the survey of the State of Massachusetts. Besides biographical review articles, he wrote several lives in Jared Sparks's "American Biography." He died May 28,1847. See Christian Examiner, 46:129; Wilson, in Sparks, Amer. Biogr. (S. S.)