Item 0004 - Letter, 2 June 1881

Rev. Henry Griggs Weston was born on October 1, 1820, in Lynn, Massachusetts.

He was a clergyman and educator. He graduated from Brown University in 1840 and Newton Theological Institution in 1842. He moved to Frankfort, Kentucky, where he was ordained a Baptist minister. He spent the next three years doing missionary work in Illinois. He preached in barns and schoolhouses until his pastorate call to Peoria, Illinois, in 1846, where he stayed for thirteen years. He was co-founder of a Baptist newspaper, "The Standard", founder and trustee of Chicago University, and an active supporter of Shurtleff College. In 1859, he became pastor of Oliver Street Baptist Church in New York City. In 1868, he resigned as pastor and accepted the presidency of Crozer Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania, a position he held until his death in 1909. Weston specialized in the interpretation of the Gospels and was a highly regarded teacher of the Bible. He was president of the American Baptist Missionary Union (1872-1873) and editor of the Baptist Quarterly (1869-1877).

In 1845, he married Endamile Chambers Van Meter (1822–1856), and in 1858, he remarried Mary Lovett Peters (1833–1894). He died on February 6, 1909, in Chester, Pennsylvania.