Treat, Selah Burr, Dd

Treat, Selah Burr, D.D.

a Congregational minister, was born at Hartland, Connecticut, February 19, 1804. After studying at Lenox Academy and Hopkins Grammar school, he graduated from Yale College in 1824; in 1826 was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of his profession at East Windsor Hill, removing however, in 1831 to Penn Yan, N.Y. where he became a Christian, and, abandoning the law, graduated from Andover Theological Seminary in 1835. The next year he became pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, Newark, N.J. In 1840 he was associated with Reverend Dr. Absalom Peters in editing the Biblical Repository and American Eclectic, in New York. In 1843 he was appointed editor of the Missionary Herald. In 1847 he was elected one of the secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, his special work being the carrying on the correspondence with the missionaries among the North American Indians. In 1859 he was called to take charge of the home department of the board, and continued in this office until a few months before his death, which occurred March 27, 1877. He had continued his editorial labors until 1856, at which time he took a second somewhat extended trip abroad, his first journey having been taken in 1850. See Cong. Quarterly, 19:347, 375. (J.C.S.)