Timothy Dwight IV
Encyclopedia
Timothy Dwight was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist
minister, theologian, and author. He was the eighth president of Yale College
(1795–1817).
.
The Dwight family had a long association with Yale College, as it was then known.
His paternal grandfather Colonel Timothy Dwight, was born October 19, 1694, and died April 30, 1771.
His father, a merchant and farmer known as Major Timothy Dwight, was born May 27, 1726, graduated from Yale in 1744, served in the American Revolutionary War
, and died June 10, 1777.
His mother Mary Edwards (1734–1807) was the third daughter of theologian Jonathan Edwards.
He was said to have learned the alphabet at a single lesson, and to have been able to read the Bible
before he was four years old.
He had 12 younger siblings, including journalist Theodore Dwight
(1764–1846).
Dwight graduated from Yale in 1769 (when was only 17 years old). For two years, he was rector of the Hopkins Grammar School
in New Haven, Connecticut
. He was a tutor at Yale College from 1771 to 1777. Licensed to preach in 1777, he was appointed by Congress chaplain in General Samuel Holden Parsons
's Connecticut Continental Brigade. He served with distinction, inspiring the troops with his sermons and the stirring war songs he composed, the most famous of which is "Columbia".
On March 3, 1777, Dwight married Mary Woolsey (1754–1777), the daughter of New York merchant and banker Benjamin Woolsey (1720–1771). This marriage connected him to some of New York's wealthiest and most influential families. Woolsey had been Dwight's father's Yale classmate, roommate, and intimate friend.
On news of his father's death in the fall of 1778, he resigned his commission and returned to take charge of his family in Northampton. Besides managing the family's farms, he preached and taught, establishing a school for both sexes. During this period, he served two terms in the Massachusetts legislature.
Declining calls from churches in Beverly
and Charlestown
, he chose instead to settle from 1783 until 1795 as minister in "Greenfield Hill," a congregational church in Fairfield, Connecticut
. There he established an academy, which at once acquired a high reputation, and attracted pupils from all parts of the Union. Dwight was an innovative and inspiring teacher, preferring moral suasion over the corporal punishment
favored by most schoolmasters of the day.
He received honorary degrees from Princeton University
in 1787 and Harvard University
in 1810.
In 1793 Dwight preached a sermon to the General Association of Connecticut entitled a "Discourse on the Genuineness and Authenticity of the New Testament" which when printed the next year became an important tract defending the orthodox faith against Deists and other skeptics.
Dwight was the leader of the evangelical
New Divinity
faction of Congregationalism — a group closely identified with Connecticut's emerging commercial elite. Although fiercely opposed by religious moderates — most notably Yale president Ezra Stiles
— he was elected to the presidency of Yale on Stiles's death in 1795. His ability as a teacher, and his talents as a religious and political leader, soon made the college the largest institution of higher education in North America
. Dwight had a genius for recognizing able proteges — among them Lyman Beecher
, Nathaniel W. Taylor, and Leonard Bacon
, all of whom would become major religious leaders and theological innovators in the ante bellum decades.
During troubled times at Yale University, president Timothy Dwight saw his students drawn to the radical republicanism and “infidel philosophy” of the French Revolution, including the philosophies of Hume, Hobbes, Tindal, and Lords Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1797. Between 1797 and 1800, Dwight frequently warned audiences against the threats of this “infidel philosophy” in America. An address to the candidates for the baccalaureate in Yale College called "The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy, Exhibited in Two Discourses, Addressed to the Candidates for the Baccalaureate, In Yale College" was delivered on September 9, 1797. It was published by George Bunce in 1798. This book is credited as one of the embers of the Second Great Awakening. A negative side of Dwight's work was that he opposed smallpox
vaccination
, see Vaccination and religion
.
Dwight was as notable for his political leadership as for his religious and educational eminence. Known by his enemies as "Pope" Dwight, he wielded both the temporal sword (as head of Connecticut's Federalist Party), and spiritual sword (as nominal head of the state's Congregational Church). He led the effort to prevent the disestablishment of the church in Connecticut—and, when its disestablishment appeared inevitable, encouraged efforts by proteges like Beecher and Bacon to organize voluntary associations to maintain the influence of religion in public life. Fearing that the failure of states to establish schools and the rise of "infidelity" would bring about the destruction of republican institutions, he helped to create a national evangelical movement—the second "Great Awakening" -- intended to "re-church" America. Dwight was a founder of the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
, and Andover Theological Seminary.
Dwight was well known as an author, preacher, and theologian. He and his brother, Theodore
, were members of a group of writers centered around Yale known as the "Hartford Wits."
In verse, Dwight wrote an ambitious epic in eleven books, The Conquest of Canaan, finished in 1774 but not published until 1785, a somewhat ponderous and solemn satire, The Triumph of Infidelity (1788), directed against David Hume
, Voltaire
and others; Greenfield Hill
(1794), the suggestion for which seems to have been derived from John Denham's
Coopers Hill; and a number of minor poems and hymns, the best known of which is that beginning "I love thy kingdom, Lord". Many of his sermons were published posthumously under the titles Theology Explained and Defended (5 vols., 1818–1819), to which a memoir of the author by two of his sons, W. T. and Sereno E. Dwight, is prefixed, and Sermons by Timothy Dwight (2 vols., 1828), which had a large circulation both in the United States and in England. Probably his most important work, published posthumously, is his Travels in New England and New York (4 vols., 1821–1822). The work contains much material of value concerning social and economic New England
and New York during the period 1796-1817. (The term "Cape Cod House
" makes its first appearance in this work.) The work also contains the correspondence between Dwight and the theologian Gideon Hawley
, following Dwight's visit to the elder preacher who was a very close friend of Dwight's parents.
Dwight died of prostate cancer
, and was buried in New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery. Dwight had eight sons: Timothy Dwight (1778–1844), a New Haven merchant and philanthropist
; Benjamin Woolsey Dwight (1780–1850), a New York physician; educator and theologian; twins James Dwight (1784–1863) and John Dwight (1784–1803); Sereno Edwards Dwight
(1786–1850); clergyman William Theodore Dwight (1795–1865); Henry Edwin Dwight (1797–1832); and one who died young. Dwight's grandson and namesake
, "Timothy Dwight the Younger"
(1828–1916), served as Yale's president, 1886-1899. His nephew, Theodore Dwight Woolsey
(1801–1889), served as Yale's president between 1846 and 1871. Another nephew was Theodore Dwight
(1796–1866), an author and journalist.
His wife Mary Woolsey Dwight died October 5, 1845.
. He signed onto a ship leaving Hawaii and eventually wound up at the captain's home in New Haven, Connecticut
. He was bright but he had no formal education. One day he sat on the steps of Yale College and explained to a passer-by that he was upset because, "No one gives me learning." (This quote is on the plaque at his graveside in Hawaii.) He was taken under the wing (and into the home) of Yale president Dr. Timothy Dwight.
Henry embraced Christianity and converted in 1815. In 1816 he enrolled in the new Foreign Mission School
, established by the American Board across from the Congregational Church in Cornwall, Connecticut
. He became very involved with plans to send missionaries to Hawaii.
He planned to return to Hawaii himself to preach, but contracted typhus fever and died in 1818 in Cornwall at the age of 26. Henry is credited with starting Hawaii's conversion to Christianity. On Aug. 15, 1993, Opukahaia's remains were laid in a vault facing the sea at Kahikolu Church
near the town of Napoopoo, Kona, on the Island of Hawaii. It was the third church established in Hawaii by missionaries inspired by Opukahaia. Hawaii's churches observe the third Sunday in February as a day of commemoration in honor of its first Christian.
Plaque at the Cornwall, CT grave site:
"In July of 1993, the family of Henry Opukahaia took him home to Hawaii for interment at Kahikolu Congregational Church Cemetery, Napo'opo'o, Kona, Island of Hawaii. Henry's family expresses gratitude, appreciation and love to all who cared for and loved him throughout the past years. Ahahui O Opukahaia"
.
In the twentieth century, Yale named Timothy Dwight College
for him and his grandson.
In 2008, The Library of America selected Dwight's account of the murders of Connecticut shopkeeper William Beadle for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime.
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
minister, theologian, and author. He was the eighth president of Yale College
Yale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...
(1795–1817).
Early life
Timothy Dwight was born May 14, 1752 in Northampton, MassachusettsNorthampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
.
The Dwight family had a long association with Yale College, as it was then known.
His paternal grandfather Colonel Timothy Dwight, was born October 19, 1694, and died April 30, 1771.
His father, a merchant and farmer known as Major Timothy Dwight, was born May 27, 1726, graduated from Yale in 1744, served in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, and died June 10, 1777.
His mother Mary Edwards (1734–1807) was the third daughter of theologian Jonathan Edwards.
He was said to have learned the alphabet at a single lesson, and to have been able to read the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
before he was four years old.
He had 12 younger siblings, including journalist Theodore Dwight
Theodore Dwight (elder)
Theodore Dwight was an American lawyer and journalist.He was the brother of Timothy Dwight, president of Yale, and the grandson of Jonathan Edwards...
(1764–1846).
Dwight graduated from Yale in 1769 (when was only 17 years old). For two years, he was rector of the Hopkins Grammar School
Hopkins School
The Hopkins School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational day school, located in New Haven, Connecticut....
in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
. He was a tutor at Yale College from 1771 to 1777. Licensed to preach in 1777, he was appointed by Congress chaplain in General Samuel Holden Parsons
Samuel Holden Parsons
Samuel Holden Parsons was an American lawyer, jurist, and military leader.Parsons was born in Lyme, Connecticut, the son of Jonathan Parsons and Phoebe Parsons...
's Connecticut Continental Brigade. He served with distinction, inspiring the troops with his sermons and the stirring war songs he composed, the most famous of which is "Columbia".
On March 3, 1777, Dwight married Mary Woolsey (1754–1777), the daughter of New York merchant and banker Benjamin Woolsey (1720–1771). This marriage connected him to some of New York's wealthiest and most influential families. Woolsey had been Dwight's father's Yale classmate, roommate, and intimate friend.
On news of his father's death in the fall of 1778, he resigned his commission and returned to take charge of his family in Northampton. Besides managing the family's farms, he preached and taught, establishing a school for both sexes. During this period, he served two terms in the Massachusetts legislature.
Career
Dwight first came to public attention with his Yale College "Valedictory Address" of 1776, in which he described Americans as having a unique national identity as a new "people, who have the same religion, the same manners, the same interests, the same language, and the same essential forms and principles of civic government."Declining calls from churches in Beverly
Beverly, Massachusetts
Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,343 on , which differs by no more than several hundred from the 39,862 obtained in the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides...
and Charlestown
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located on a peninsula north of downtown Boston. Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; it became a city in 1847 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874...
, he chose instead to settle from 1783 until 1795 as minister in "Greenfield Hill," a congregational church in Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is bordered by the towns of Bridgeport, Trumbull, Easton, Redding and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 59,404...
. There he established an academy, which at once acquired a high reputation, and attracted pupils from all parts of the Union. Dwight was an innovative and inspiring teacher, preferring moral suasion over the corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
favored by most schoolmasters of the day.
He received honorary degrees from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1787 and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1810.
In 1793 Dwight preached a sermon to the General Association of Connecticut entitled a "Discourse on the Genuineness and Authenticity of the New Testament" which when printed the next year became an important tract defending the orthodox faith against Deists and other skeptics.
Dwight was the leader of the evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
New Divinity
New Divinity
The New Divinity is a system of Christian theology that was very prominent in New England in the late 18th century...
faction of Congregationalism — a group closely identified with Connecticut's emerging commercial elite. Although fiercely opposed by religious moderates — most notably Yale president Ezra Stiles
Ezra Stiles
Ezra Stiles was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian and author. He was president of Yale College .-Early life:...
— he was elected to the presidency of Yale on Stiles's death in 1795. His ability as a teacher, and his talents as a religious and political leader, soon made the college the largest institution of higher education in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Dwight had a genius for recognizing able proteges — among them Lyman Beecher
Lyman Beecher
Lyman Beecher was a Presbyterian minister, American Temperance Society co-founder and leader, and the father of 13 children, many of whom were noted leaders, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Catharine Beecher, and Thomas...
, Nathaniel W. Taylor, and Leonard Bacon
Leonard Bacon
Leonard Bacon was an American Congregational preacher and writer.-Biography:Leonard Bacon was born in Detroit, Michigan...
, all of whom would become major religious leaders and theological innovators in the ante bellum decades.
During troubled times at Yale University, president Timothy Dwight saw his students drawn to the radical republicanism and “infidel philosophy” of the French Revolution, including the philosophies of Hume, Hobbes, Tindal, and Lords Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1797. Between 1797 and 1800, Dwight frequently warned audiences against the threats of this “infidel philosophy” in America. An address to the candidates for the baccalaureate in Yale College called "The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy, Exhibited in Two Discourses, Addressed to the Candidates for the Baccalaureate, In Yale College" was delivered on September 9, 1797. It was published by George Bunce in 1798. This book is credited as one of the embers of the Second Great Awakening. A negative side of Dwight's work was that he opposed smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
vaccination
Vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
, see Vaccination and religion
Vaccination and religion
Vaccination and religion have interrelations of varying kinds.-Historical:Catholic and Anglican missionaries vaccinated Northwest Coast Indians during an 1862 smallpox epidemic....
.
Dwight was as notable for his political leadership as for his religious and educational eminence. Known by his enemies as "Pope" Dwight, he wielded both the temporal sword (as head of Connecticut's Federalist Party), and spiritual sword (as nominal head of the state's Congregational Church). He led the effort to prevent the disestablishment of the church in Connecticut—and, when its disestablishment appeared inevitable, encouraged efforts by proteges like Beecher and Bacon to organize voluntary associations to maintain the influence of religion in public life. Fearing that the failure of states to establish schools and the rise of "infidelity" would bring about the destruction of republican institutions, he helped to create a national evangelical movement—the second "Great Awakening" -- intended to "re-church" America. Dwight was a founder of the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was the first American Christian foreign mission agency. It was proposed in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College and officially chartered in 1812. In 1961 it merged with other societies to form the United Church Board for World...
, and Andover Theological Seminary.
Dwight was well known as an author, preacher, and theologian. He and his brother, Theodore
Theodore Dwight (elder)
Theodore Dwight was an American lawyer and journalist.He was the brother of Timothy Dwight, president of Yale, and the grandson of Jonathan Edwards...
, were members of a group of writers centered around Yale known as the "Hartford Wits."
Hartford Wits
The Hartford Wits were a group of American writers centered around Yale University and flourished in the 1780s and 1790s. Mostly graduates of Yale, they were conservative federalists who attacked their political opponents with satirical verse...
In verse, Dwight wrote an ambitious epic in eleven books, The Conquest of Canaan, finished in 1774 but not published until 1785, a somewhat ponderous and solemn satire, The Triumph of Infidelity (1788), directed against David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
, Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
and others; Greenfield Hill
Greenfield Hill
Greenfield Hill is an historic neighborhood of Fairfield, Connecticut and is roughly bounded by the Merritt Parkway., Burr Street., Redding Road, Hulls Farm Road., and Hill Farm Road....
(1794), the suggestion for which seems to have been derived from John Denham's
John Denham (poet)
Sir John Denham was an English poet and courtier. He served as Surveyor of the King's Works and is buried in Westminster Abbey....
Coopers Hill; and a number of minor poems and hymns, the best known of which is that beginning "I love thy kingdom, Lord". Many of his sermons were published posthumously under the titles Theology Explained and Defended (5 vols., 1818–1819), to which a memoir of the author by two of his sons, W. T. and Sereno E. Dwight, is prefixed, and Sermons by Timothy Dwight (2 vols., 1828), which had a large circulation both in the United States and in England. Probably his most important work, published posthumously, is his Travels in New England and New York (4 vols., 1821–1822). The work contains much material of value concerning social and economic New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
and New York during the period 1796-1817. (The term "Cape Cod House
Cape Cod (house)
A Cape Cod cottage is a style of house originating in New England in the 17th century. It is traditionally characterized by a low, broad frame building, generally a story and a half high, with a steep, pitched roof with end gables, a large central chimney and very little ornamentation...
" makes its first appearance in this work.) The work also contains the correspondence between Dwight and the theologian Gideon Hawley
Gideon Hawley
Gideon Hawley was a missionary to the Iroquois Indians in Massachusetts and on the Susquehanna River in New York.-Biography:He was born in the Stratfield section of Stratford, now Bridgeport, Connecticut, in New England on November 5, 1727. The son of Gideon Hawley and Hannah Bennett who was the...
, following Dwight's visit to the elder preacher who was a very close friend of Dwight's parents.
Dwight died of prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
, and was buried in New Haven's Grove Street Cemetery. Dwight had eight sons: Timothy Dwight (1778–1844), a New Haven merchant and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
; Benjamin Woolsey Dwight (1780–1850), a New York physician; educator and theologian; twins James Dwight (1784–1863) and John Dwight (1784–1803); Sereno Edwards Dwight
Sereno Edwards Dwight
Sereno Edwards Dwight was an American author, educator, and Congregationalist minister, who served as Chaplain of the Senate.- Early years:...
(1786–1850); clergyman William Theodore Dwight (1795–1865); Henry Edwin Dwight (1797–1832); and one who died young. Dwight's grandson and namesake
Namesake
Namesake is a term used to characterize a person, place, thing, quality, action, state, or idea that has the same, or a similar, name to another....
, "Timothy Dwight the Younger"
Timothy Dwight V
Timothy Dwight V was an American academic, an educator, a Congregational minister, and president of Yale College...
(1828–1916), served as Yale's president, 1886-1899. His nephew, Theodore Dwight Woolsey
Theodore Dwight Woolsey
Theodore Dwight Woolsey was an American academic, author and president of Yale College from 1846 through 1871.-Biography:Theodore Dwight Woolsey was born October 31, 1801 in New York City...
(1801–1889), served as Yale's president between 1846 and 1871. Another nephew was Theodore Dwight
Theodore Dwight (author)
-Life:Theodore Dwight was born March 3, 1796 in Hartford, Connecticut.His father was Theodore Dwight of the New England Dwight family. His mother was Abigail Alsop , the sister of Richard Alsop ....
(1796–1866), an author and journalist.
His wife Mary Woolsey Dwight died October 5, 1845.
The Gentle soul, Henry Opukahaia
Henry Opukahaia was orphaned at age 10 after witnessing the tribal warfare deaths of his parents and younger brother in the Islands of HawaiiHawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
. He signed onto a ship leaving Hawaii and eventually wound up at the captain's home in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
. He was bright but he had no formal education. One day he sat on the steps of Yale College and explained to a passer-by that he was upset because, "No one gives me learning." (This quote is on the plaque at his graveside in Hawaii.) He was taken under the wing (and into the home) of Yale president Dr. Timothy Dwight.
Henry embraced Christianity and converted in 1815. In 1816 he enrolled in the new Foreign Mission School
Foreign Mission School
The Foreign Mission School was an educational institution which existed between 1817 and 1826 in Cornwall, Connecticut. It was established by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to bring Christianity and Western culture to non-caucasian people by educating missionaries of...
, established by the American Board across from the Congregational Church in Cornwall, Connecticut
Cornwall, Connecticut
Cornwall is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,434 at the 2000 census.In 1939 poet Mark Van Doren wrote "The Hills of Little Cornwall", a short poem in which the beauties of the countryside were portrayed as seductive:The town was also home to the Foreign...
. He became very involved with plans to send missionaries to Hawaii.
He planned to return to Hawaii himself to preach, but contracted typhus fever and died in 1818 in Cornwall at the age of 26. Henry is credited with starting Hawaii's conversion to Christianity. On Aug. 15, 1993, Opukahaia's remains were laid in a vault facing the sea at Kahikolu Church
Kahikolu Church
Kahikolu Church is one of only two stone churches from the 19th century on the island of Hawaii. It was built from 1852–1855 on the site of an earlier building known as Kealakekua Church that was built around 1833 in the Kona district.-History:...
near the town of Napoopoo, Kona, on the Island of Hawaii. It was the third church established in Hawaii by missionaries inspired by Opukahaia. Hawaii's churches observe the third Sunday in February as a day of commemoration in honor of its first Christian.
Plaque at the Cornwall, CT grave site:
"In July of 1993, the family of Henry Opukahaia took him home to Hawaii for interment at Kahikolu Congregational Church Cemetery, Napo'opo'o, Kona, Island of Hawaii. Henry's family expresses gratitude, appreciation and love to all who cared for and loved him throughout the past years. Ahahui O Opukahaia"
Legacy
Dwight's 1785 poem The Conquest of Canaan is considered to be the first American epic poemEpic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
.
In the twentieth century, Yale named Timothy Dwight College
Timothy Dwight College
Timothy Dwight College, commonly abbreviated and referred to as "TD", is a residential college at Yale University named after two university presidents, Timothy Dwight IV and Timothy Dwight V. The college was designed in 1935 by James Gamble Rogers in the Federal-style architecture popular during...
for him and his grandson.
In 2008, The Library of America selected Dwight's account of the murders of Connecticut shopkeeper William Beadle for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime.
Further reading
- Berk, Stephen E. (1974). Calvinism versus Democracy: Timothy Dwight and the Origins of American Evangelical Orthodoxy. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books.
- Cuningham, Charles E. (1942). Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817. New York: Macmillan Company.
- Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. "Timothy Dwight" in Yale Annals and Biographies, III, 321-333.
- Dowling, William C.William C. DowlingWilliam C. Dowling is University Distinguished Professor of English and American Literature at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, specializing in 18th-century English literature, literature of the early American Republic, and Literary Theory.-Biography:Born in Warner, New Hampshire,...
Poetry and Ideology in Revolutionary Connecticut (University of Georgia Press, 1990) ISBN 0-8203-1286-X - __________. "Timothy Dwight" in American National Biography, Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Dwight, Timothy. (1831). Theology Explained and Defended. London: T. Tegg.
- __________. (1823). Travels in New England and New York, W. Baynes and Son, and Ogle, Duncan & Co., London, England, 1823.
- Dwight, Timothy, Memories of Yale Life and Men, 1903.
- Fitzmeir, John R., New England's Moral Legislator: Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 1998.
- Hall, Peter Dobkin, "The Civic Engagement Tradition," in Mary Jo Bane, Brent Coffin, & Richard Higgins, Taking Faith Seriously, 2005.
- Howard, Leon, The Connecticut Wits, University of Chicago Press, 1943
- Olmsted, D., "Timothy Dwight as a Teacher." In American Journal of Education, V (1853), 567-585.
- Parrington, Vernon Louis, The Connecticut Wits, Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1926.
- Silverman, Kenneth, Timothy Dwight, Twayne Publishers, New York, 1969.
- Sprague, William Buell, Life of Timothy Dwight in vol. iv. (second series) of Jared Sparks's Library of American Biography, 1856.
- Tyler, Moses Coit, Three Men of Letters., G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1895.
- Wells, Colin, The Devil and Doctor Dwight: Satire and Theology in the Early American Republic, University of North Carolina Press, 2002. ISBN0-8078-5383-6
- Wenzke, Annabelle S., Timothy Dwight (1752–1817), E. Mellen Press, Lewiston, New York, c. 1989