Francis D. Hemenway (1853)
Born in Vermont in 1830 and converted at a Methodist revival at twelve, Hemenway graduated from the Biblical Institute and briefly taught and served a church in Vermont. In 1857, he became one of the first professors at Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois as Professor of Hebrew and Sacred Literature. He was active in the churches in that city and during the Civil War briefly returned to pastoral service. He led a Methodist class meeting in his home whose members included several of his students as well as Frances E. Willard, president of the W.C.T.U. He was instrumental in developing a hymnal for the Methodist Episcopal Church. One of his students described him as “accurate, clear, industrious, and upright in form as in soul.” The dean of woman’s college in Evanston lauded the way he “skillfully unraveled the meaning of God’s word to his attentive Bible class.” He died April 19, 1884.
Works:
- Hemenway, F. D. Biblical Introduction: Syllabus of Lectures. Chicago: F.D. Hemenway, 1884.
- ________. Gospel Singers and Their Songs. New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1892.
- Hemenway, F. D., Charles Frederick Bradley, Charles Macaulay Stuart, and Amos Williams Patten. Life and Selected Writings of Francis Dana Hemenway, Late Professor of Hebrew and Biblical Literature in the Garrettt Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois. Cincinnati and Chicago: Cranston & Stowe, 1890.
Sources:
- Cary, Seth C. A Catalogue of the Alpha Chapter Boston University: Graduates of the School of Theology, 1850-1905. Boston: Published by the Biographical Secretary, 1906.
- Hemenway, F. D., Charles Frederick Bradley, Charles Macaulay Stuart, and Amos Williams Patten. Life and Selected Writings of Francis Dana Hemenway, Late Professor of Hebrew and Biblical Literature in the Garrettt Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois. Cincinnati and Chicago: Cranston & Stowe, 1890.
- Willard, Frances E. A Classic Town: The Story of Evanston. Chicago: Woman’s Temperance Publishing Association, 1892.
- Young, David, Samuel Hart Wright, and W. H. De Puy. The Methodist Almanac. New York: Published by G. Lane, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1834.