Austin Phelps
| Austin Phelps | |
|---|---|
Austin Phelps c. 1870
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| Born |
January 7, 1820 West Brookfield, Massachusetts |
| Died | October 13, 1890 (aged 70) Bar Harbor, Maine |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Minister |
| Known for | President of Andover Theological Seminary; author of Christian books still in print |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Stuart, Mary Stuart, Mary Ann Johnson |
| Children | Mary Gray, Moses Stuart, Amos Lawrence, Francis Johnson, Edward Johnson |
Austin Phelps (January 7, 1820 – October 13, 1890), was an American Congregational minister and educator. He was for 10 years President of the Andover Theological Seminary and his writings became standard textbooks for Christian theological education and remain in print today.
Austin Phelps was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. His father, Eliakim Phelps was a clergyman and the principal of a girls’ school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Eliakim Phelps was later pastor of a Presbyterian church in Geneva, New York, where he was installed as in 1830, and in 1835 he was elected Secretary of the American Educational Society of Philadelphia.
After preparing for college at the age of twelve Austin studied at Hobart College from 1833 to 1835, then at Amherst for six months. He was by far the youngest boy in his class and was intensely unhappy. In 1835 he rejoined his family in Philadelphia where he finally obtained a degree in 1837 from the University of Pennsylvania.
He studied theology at Union Theological Seminary (including six months of Hebrew studies under Isaac Nordheimer), at the Yale Divinity School, and later at Andover. In 1840, he was licensed to preach by the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia. In 1842, he was pastor of the Pine Street (Congregational) Church in Boston when he met and married in the autumn of that year Elizabeth Stuart (August 13, 1815 - November 30, 1852). She was the eldest daughter of Moses Stuart, president of Andover Theological Seminary. His wife Elizabeth Stuart, aside from Jacob Abbott, was one of the earliest writers of books for girls, publishing the four volume Kitty Brown series of books for girls under the pen name H. Trusta and other books. They had three children, Mary Gray (b. 1844), Moses Stuart (b. 1849) and Amos Lawrence (b. 1852).
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