Thurston, Eli, Dd

Thurston, Eli, D.D.

a Congregational minister, was born at Brighton, Massachusetts, June 14, 1808. At the age of seventeen he went to Millbury to learn the gunsmith's trade, but having been converted in his twentieth year, he immediately began to study for the ministry, attending Day's Academy at Wrentham, and graduating from Amherst College in 1834. The year following he spent in Andover Theological Seminary, and the two succeeding studied theology with the Reverend Dr. Jacob Ide, of West Medway. He was ordained pastor in Hallowell, Maine, January 3, 1838, and filled this position for ten years. The following twenty years, dating from March 21, 1849, he was pastor of the Central Church in Fall River, Mass. He died there, December 19,1869. In theology Dr. Thurston was ranked as a Hopkinsian Calvinist, and his sermons were all constructed on the basis of his theology. As a preacher he was remarkable for clearness of statement and directness of argument. See Cong. Quarterly, 1871, page 433.