Park family. - Social Networks and Archival Context (original) (raw)

The Park family is composed of several generations of clergymen and educators. Edwards Amasa Park was a theologian and professor at Andover Theological Seminary (1836-1881). His son William Edwards Park was a minister of the Congregational Church in Gloversville, New York, and his granddaughter Marion Edwards Park was president of Bryn Mawr College from 1922 to 1942. Edwards Amasa Park's wife was Anna Maria Edwards, a great-granddaughter of Jonathan Edwards. She was also related to members of the Burr and Reeve families. William Edwards Park's wife, Sara Billings Edwards, was the daughter of theologian and editor Bela Bates Edwards and Jerusha William Billings, who conducted a school for girls in Andover, Massachusetts, and was the sister of Elizabeth Storrs Billings Mead, the president of Mount Holyoke College from 1890 to 1901.

WILLIAM EDWARDS PARK, only son of Rev. Edwards Amasa Park, D.D., LL.D., (B.A. Brown 1826), who was Professor in Andover Theological Seminary for forty-five years, was born in Andover, Mass., July 1, 1837. His mother was Ann Maria (Edwards) Park, a great-granddaughter of Jonathan Edwards. He was prepared for college at Phillips Academy in his native town, and was a member of the class of 1860 for three years, joining '61 the last term of junior year.

After graduation he studied at home until March, 1862, when he went to St. Helena Island, S. C., as a member of the first party sent from the North by the Educational Commission for Freedmen. After four months in this work he engaged in teaching and studying law in New York City, and in the fall of 1863 entered the Andover Theological Seminary, from which he graduated in 1867. During this time, however, he spent ten months in Nashville, Tenn., as a delegate of the United States Christian Commission, and in 1865 co-operated in raising funds to rebuild Phillips Academy, which had been destroyed by fire.

He was licensed to preach in December, 1866, and devoted thirty-six years of his life to the ministry in two pastorates. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Central Congregational Church of Lawrence, Mass., November 13, 1867, and remained there eight years. June 21, 1876, he was installed over the Congregational Church in Gloversville, N. Y., where he continued in active service until 1904, and was pastor emeritus at the time of his death. The twenty-fifth anniversary of his settlement furnished an occasion for voicing the warm appreciation of the church and of the town of his achievements. His church under his influence felt a keen interest in education, and an unusually large proportion of the young men have come to Yale. He devoted much care to the foundation and development of the Public Library.

In addition to his local work he had many wider interests. He was moderator of the New York State Association of Congregational Churches on three occasions and several times of the Hudson River Association. In 1885 and at each subsequent council until 1908 he was a delegate to the National Council of Congregational Churches. For twenty-five years he was a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and for twenty years was a member of the New York State Home Missionary Committee and state representative of the Church Building Society. He was president of the Phillips (Andover) Academy Alumni Association, and in 1903 was elected president of the Yale Alumni Association of Fulton and Montgomery Counties, N.Y. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Marietta College in 1888.

He made seven long sojourns abroad, and had been an extensive traveler. Since 1904 he had resided in Oberlin, O., engaged in literary work. In 1907 he became associate editor of the Bibliotheca Sacra, of which his eminent father was editor from 1844 to 1884. He also wrote many articles on various subjects for newspapers, magazines, and encyclopedias, and delivered a large number of public lectures. In June, 1878, he read a paper on the "Earlier Annals of Phillips Academy," at its centennial anniversary.

Dr. Park died suddenly at his home in Oberlin, May 19, 1910, in the 73rd year of his age.

He married March 4, 1874, Sara Billings, daughter of Professor Bela B. Edwards, D.D. (B.A. Amherst 1824), of Andover Seminary, and Jerusha W. (Billings) Edwards, who survives him. Their daughter graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1898, and their son from the Academical Department of Yale in 1900.

From Yale University Obituary Record .

From the guide to the Park family papers, 1701-1929, (Manuscripts and Archives)

Bibliographic and Digital Archival Resources