Riley, Henry Augustus

Riley, Henry Augustus, a Presbyterian minister, was born in the city of New York Nov. 21, 1801. In 1815 he was sent to the Jesuit College at Georgetown, D.C., but left in 1817, and, under a private tutor in Philadelphia, he was prepared for the University of Pennsylvania, from which institution he graduated in July, 1820. After this he entered the law office of Horace Binney, Esq., and continued in the study of the law until the fall, when a severe attack of illness moved him to the study of medicine. To this end he entered a private class of Prof. Nathaniel Chapman, M.D., and attended medical lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated from its medical department in April, 1825. Returning to his home in New York, he entered upon the practice of medicine, and continued for about three years. In June 1828, he united with the Rutgers Street Presbyterian Church, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas M'Auley, D.D., and soon after determined to devote his life to the work of preaching the Gospel. With this end in view, he entered Princeton Theological Seminary Feb. 5, 1829, and, after taking the full course, graduated in 1832. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New York in October of the same year, and ordained by the said presbytery in 1835. After his licensure he went to Philadelphia, and laid the foundation of the Third Church of that city in January 1833, and labored there until April following. From that time until August he supplied the Presbyterian Church at Mattewan, N.Y., and in April 1835, took charge of the Eighth Avenue Church — now West Twenty-third Street Church — in New York city, at which time, as above stated, he was ordained. He labored in this field until January 1839, when he went to Montrose, Pa., and was installed, and there he had a long, most useful, and successful pastorate of nearly a quarter of a century, from which he was released only on account of the loss of his voice, which occurred in 1863. After his resignation, he resumed for a limited time the practice of medicine, and continued to reside in Montrose, where he died, March 17, 1878. (W.P.S.)