Author: Ely, Ezra Stiles
Biography:
ELY, Ezra Stiles (1786-1861: WBIS)
The son of Rev. Zebulon Ely and Sarah (Mills) Ely, he was born in Lebanon CT and named after the incumbent President of Yale College. He graduated from Yale in 1804 and was licensed to preach in the same year, then ordained and installed in his first parish, in Colchester CT, in 1806. He later served congregations in New York City and Philadelphia. In 1814, the year that he accepted a call to the Old Pine Street Church in Philadelphia, he married Mary Ann Carswell, who bore him seven children but died in 1842. By his second marriage in 1843 to Caroline Holmes of Virginia, he had five more children. He was active as an editor, a religious writer, and a philanthropist--especially in causes promoting higher education. From 1822 to 1836, he was one of the directors of the Princeton Seminary; in 1828 he was chosen as Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly. In 1834 he invested heavily in an unsuccessful attempt to found a Presbyterian city in North Missouri. He died in Philadelphia, survived by his wife and six children. (Dexter; Appleton) HJ