Howard Duffield

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Howard Duffield
Photograph of Duffield, c. 1915 – c. 1920
49th President of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York
In office
1922–1923
Preceded byAlfred Wagstaff Jr.
Personal details
Born
George Howard Duffield

(1854-04-09)April 9, 1854
Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedJanuary 5, 1941(1941-01-05) (aged 86)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Spouse
Catherine Nash Greenleaf
(m. 1877⁠–⁠1936)
Parent(s)John Thomas Duffield
Sarah Elizabeth Green Duffield
RelativesWilliam Henry Green (uncle)
Alma materPrinceton University
Princeton Theological Seminary

George Howard Duffield (April 9, 1854 — January 5, 1941)[1] was a prominent American minister in New York City.

Early life[edit]

Duffield was born on April 8, 1854, in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the son of Dr. John Thomas Duffield (1823—1901), a professor of Mathematics at Princeton, and Sarah Elizabeth (née Green) Duffield.[2] Among his siblings was Edward Dickinson Duffield (acting president of Princeton University); Helen Duffield; John Fletcher Duffield; and Henry Green Duffield.

His maternal grandparents were George Smith Green and Sarah Stewart (née Kennedy) Green and his uncle was Rev. Dr. William Henry Green, a scholar of the Hebrew language. Through his mother's family, he was in the seventh generation from Jonathan Dickinson, the first president of the College of New Jersey (today known as Princeton University).[1]

Duffield graduated from Princeton University in 1873, where he received the Junior Orator Medal,[3] and the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1877.[4] In November 1888, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Princeton.[5]

Career[edit]

Duffield was a Presbyterian minister,[6] first at Leacock Presbyterian Church in Leacock Township, Pennsylvania, then the Presbyterian Church of Beverly, New Jersey, followed by the Westminster Church in Detroit,[7] and finally in 1891 the Old First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan (founded in 1716),[8] at 11th Street and Fifth Avenue,[9] which was merged with the Madison Square Presbyterian Church in 1918.[10] Duffield "believed in the importance of the preached word and embraced the notion of an outdoor pulpit, allowing him in the summers to preach to crowd's on Old First's lawn."[11] In 1916, which was also his twenty-fifth year in the pulpit,[12] he published A Bird's Eye View of the Twelve Months' Work at the Old First Church: Reports of the Boards, Societies and Clubs of the Old First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York.[11]

Duffield was elected a member of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, an organization in New York City of men descended from early inhabitants of the State of New York.[13] Beginning in 1922, he served two terms as the Society's 49th President, succeeding Alfred Wagstaff Jr.[14][15]

Personal life[edit]

In May 1877,[2] Duffield was married to Catherine Nash Greenleaf (1852—1936), a daughter of Thomas Greenleaf and Eleanor (née Leal) Greenleaf.[16] Both Catherine and her brother James Leal Greenleaf, a prominent landscape architect, were Mayflower descendants.[17] Together, they lived at 36 Washington Square West and were the parents of:[18]

  • George Greenleaf Duffield, who died in infancy.[18]
  • Howard Leal Duffield (1879–1884), who died young.[18]
  • Eleanor Van Dyck Duffield (1880–1939)
  • Douglas Greenleaf Duffield (1882–1884), a twin who died in infancy.[18]
  • Stuart Kennedy Duffield (1882–1944), a twin.[18]
  • Winifred Duffield (b. 1887)[18]

Duffield died at his apartment in the Hotel Holley at 36 Washington Square West, on January 5, 1941.[1] He was buried at the Princeton Cemetery in Princeton, New Jersey.[19]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "DR. H. DUFFIELD, 86; NOTED CLERGYMAN; Minister of the 'Old First' Presbyterian Church Here, 1891-1918, Is Ded RAISED $300,000 FUND He Began Meetings on Steps of Church in 1911Was Author of 'Wartime Pryers'" (PDF). The New York Times. 6 January 1941. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Preachers in the Metropolitan Pulpit -- XI". The New-York Observer. Morse, Hallock & Company: 731. June 4, 1908. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  3. ^ N.J.), College of New Jersey (Princeton; University, Princeton (1869). Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the College of New Jersey for. John T. Robinson. p. 43. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  4. ^ Bogard, Milo T. (1902). The Redemption of New York. Milo T. Bogard. p. 586. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  5. ^ N.J.), College of New Jersey (Princeton (1890). Catalogue of the College of New Jersey at Princeton. Princeton Press. p. 172. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  6. ^ "SAYS PRESBYTERIANISM IS ON THE DECLINE.; Dr. Howard Duffield Advocates Observance of Feast Days -- Dr. Stevenson on Creed Revision" (PDF). The New York Times. 8 April 1902. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  7. ^ Minutes of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. Synod of Michigan. Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. Synod of. 1877. p. 397. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  8. ^ MacDougall, Donald John (1917). Scots and Scots' Descendants in America. Caledonian Publishing Company. p. 26. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  9. ^ The Baptist Home Mission Monthly. American Baptist Home Mission Society. 1893. p. 236. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  10. ^ "DE. DUFFIELD'S LAST SERMON AT OLD FIRST; Tells of War Revealing Germans' Lack of Chris--Sermons on the War in Other Pulpits" (PDF). The New York Times. 3 June 1918. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  11. ^ a b Bowman, Matthew (2014). The Urban Pulpit: New York City and the Fate of Liberal Evangelicalism. Oxford University Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780199977611. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  12. ^ "OBSERVE TWO FETES IN OLD FIRST CHURCH; Presbyterians Commemorate Two-Hundredth Anniversary of Its Founding. THE PASTOR ALSO HONORED The Rev. Howard Duffield Completes His Twenty-fifth Year in Pulpit There" (PDF). The New York Times. 4 December 1916. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  13. ^ Genealogical Record of the Saint Nicholas Society: Advanced Sheets, First Series. Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. 1902. p. 44. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  14. ^ Portraits of the Presidents of the Society, 1835–1914. New York: Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. 1914. pp. 88–89. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  15. ^ "ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY DINES; Organization Will Improve Burial Place of Washington Irving" (PDF). The New York Times. 7 December 1921. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  16. ^ Greenleaf, Rev Jonathan (1854). A Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family. p. 111. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  17. ^ Record Book of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New York. Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New York. 1922. p. 110. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  18. ^ a b c d e f Greenleaf, James Edward (1896). Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family. F. Wood, printer. p. 198. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  19. ^ "300 AT THE FUNERAL OF REV. DR. DUFFIELD; Rites for Pastor Emeritus Held in First Presbyterian Church" (PDF). The New York Times. 9 January 1941. Retrieved 20 May 2019.

External links[edit]