Baxter Dickinson (April 14, 1795 – December 5, 1875) was an American minister. Dickinson, youngest son of Azariah and Mary (Eastman) Dickinson, was born in Amherst, Mass., April 14, 1795. He graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1817. He spent a year in teaching in Virginia, and in 1818 entered

Andover Theological Seminary Andover Theological Seminary (1807–1965) was a Congregationalist seminary founded in 1807 and originally located in Andover, Massachusetts on the campus of Phillips Academy. From 1908 to 1931, it was located at Harvard University in Cambrid ...

, where he completed the course in 1821. He was ordained and installed pastor of the Congregational Church in Longmeadow, Mass., March 5, 1823, and there remained until called to the 3rd Presbyterian Church in Newark, N.J., where he was installed November 17, 1829. He labored successfully for six years in that relation, and then accepted an invitation to the Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology in Lane Seminary,

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. After four years of active devotion to the interests of that institution, he accepted an appointment to the corresponding chair in the seminary in Auburn, N.Y., and held the position eight years. For ten years he served the American and Foreign Christian Union as one of its District Secretaries at New York and Boston, and then removed with his family to Lake Forest, near Chicago, where with them he opened a Young Ladies' Seminary, which was successfully maintained until 1867. The infirmities of age rendering necessary a retirement from all labor, he removed in 1868 to Brooklyn, N. Y., to spend his closing years, and died in that city, December 5, 1875. In 1838 he received the degree of

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (academic discipline), divinity (i.e., Christian theology and Christian ministry, ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the Englis ...

from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

. He was the author of the paper known as the "True Doctrines," which was adopted in 1837 as the exponent of the doctrinal beliefs of the New School branch of the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

, and received the endorsement of both branches at the late Reunion. In 1839 he was the moderator of the New School General Assembly. He published several sermons, and some of these, as well as a volume of ''Letters to Students,'' were republished in England. Dr. Dickinson was married, June 4, 1823, to Martha Bush, of Boylston, Mass., who survived him. Of their nine children, one son and three daughters survived him. Two of the sons graduated at Amherst College, Rev. Richard Salter Storrs Dickinson in 1844 and Rev. William Cowper Dickinson in 1848. William Cowper Dickinson's son was organist

Clarence Dickinson Clarence Dickinson (May 7, 1873 in Lafayette, Indiana – August 2, 1969 in New York City) was an American composer and organist. Early life and studies Dickinson grew up in a religious family. His grandfather was minister Baxter Dickinson. His ...

External links

*
Daniel and Tammy Dickinson Family Papers
at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Baxter 1795 births 1875 deaths Yale College alumni Andover Newton Theological School alumni Lane Theological Seminary faculty Auburn Theological Seminary faculty American Presbyterian ministers 19th-century American clergy Moderators of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America