Heman Humphrey

Not to be confused with Herman L. Humphrey.

Heman Humphrey
President of Amherst College
In office
1823–1845
Preceded byZephaniah Swift Moore
Succeeded byEdward Hitchcock
Personal details
Born(1779-03-26)March 26, 1779
West Simsbury, Connecticut
DiedApril 3, 1861(1861-04-03) (aged 82)
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
SpouseSophia Porter (1785-1868)
ChildrenJames Humphrey (New York politician)
Alma materYale University
Signature

Heman Humphrey (March 26, 1779 – April 3, 1861) was a 19th-century American author and clergyman who served as a trustee of Williams College and afterward as the second president of Amherst College, a post he held for 22 years.[1][2][3][4]

Early life and education

Humphrey was born in West Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut (which became Canton, Connecticut) to farmer Solomon Humphrey, of a family that came from England before 1643, and Hannah, daughter of Captain John Brown.[5] His family moved to present-day Burlington, Connecticut at the age of six. He taught at local schools starting at age 15. He worked as a farm laborer for John Treadwell before entering university.[6]

Humphrey graduated from Yale University with an A.M. in 1805 and was ordained a Congregational minister on March 16, 1807. He became a minister in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1807, moving to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1817. His 1813 report to the Fairfield Association is one of the earliest temperance tracts published in America.[7] Humphrey is also said to have published six articles in The Panoplist and Missionary Magazine on the cause, origin, effects and remedy of intemperance.[8]

Following his tenure at Williams College, in 1823 he was appointed president of Amherst.[9] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1842.[10] Humphrey was influential in the nineteenth-century temperance movement and typical of the early proponents of prohibition.[11] He was the father of U.S. Representative James Humphrey.

Bibliography

  • Humphrey, Heman (1813). Intemperance: an address, to the churches and congregations of the Western district of Fairfield County. New Haven, Connecticut: Eli Hudson. p. 31.
  • Humphrey, Heman (1826). Debates of conscience, with a distiller, wholesale dealer, and a retailer. New York: American Tract Society. p. 16.
  • Humphrey, Heman (1828). Parallel Between Intemperance and the Slave Trade: An Address Delivered at Amherst College, July 4, 1828. Amherst, MA: J. S. & C. Adams. p. 42 – via Google Books.
  • Humphrey, Heman (1854). The Missouri Compromise. Pittsfield, Massachusetts: Reed, Hull & Peirson. pp. 32. OL 7171247M – via Internet Archive.
  • Humphrey, Heman (1859). Revival Sketches and Manual: in Two Parts. Pittsfield, Massachusetts: American Tract Society. OL 6363048M – via Internet Archive.

References

  1. ^ Heman Humphrey: Second President Archived May 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Amherst College Archives & Special Collections
  2. ^ Heman Humphrey and John R. Rice on Revival Praying
  3. ^ William Stearns, President (amherstiana.org)
  4. ^ Heman Humphrey, President (amherstiana.org)
  5. ^ Humphrey, Zephaniah Moore; Neill, Henry (1869). Memorial Sketches, Heman Humphrey, Sophia Porter Humphrey. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott & Co. pp. 199. hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t00001f6x – via HathiTrust.
  6. ^ Peck, Epaphroditus (1906). Burlington, Connecticut;. Bristol, CT: Bristol press publishing co. p. 30.
  7. ^ "Humphrey, Heman" in The Cyclopaedia of Temperance and Prohibition, 234 (New York: 1891)
  8. ^ Fourth Report of the American Temperance Society, 69 (Boston: 1831)
  9. ^ "Heman Humphrey Sermons". Amherst College Archives and Special Collections Amherst, MA. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
  10. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter H" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  11. ^ (Hugins, Walter (ed.), The Reform Impulse, 1825–1850). Columbia, SC 1972
Academic offices
Preceded by President of Amherst College
1823–1845 		Succeeded by
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