Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Kendrick, Clark
KENDRICK, Clark, clergyman, b. in Hanover, N. H., 6 Oct., 1775; d. in Poultney, Vt., 29 Feb., 1824. He spent three years in teaching in his native town, and on 20 May, 1802, was ordained pastor of a Baptist church at Poultney, Vt. He also made several missionary excursions in Vermont and northern New York between 1810 and 1814. He was vice-president in 1813-'17, and then corresponding secretary till his death, of the auxiliary Baptist foreign missionary society in Vermont, and he was chaplain to the Vermont legislature in 1817. It was chiefly through his efforts that the Baptist education society of Vermont was organized, the object of which was to assist indigent young men in their preparation for the ministry. Mr. Kendrick was chosen its president, and subsequently appointed an agent to visit the churches and procure funds in its behalf. In 1820, when the establishment of a school was contemplated, it was decided to co-operate with the Baptists of central and western New York in supporting the college already in operation at Hamilton, Madison co., N. Y., and Mr. Kendrick was appointed general agent for the state to carry out this object. He published a pamphlet on close communion entitled “Plain Dealing with the Pedo-Baptists,” and a few sermons. —
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His son, Asahel Clark, educator, b. in Poultney, Vt., 7 Dec., 1809, after graduation at Hamilton college in 1831, became a tutor in the literary and theological institution at Hamilton (now Madison university), which his father's cousin, Dr. Nathaniel Kendrick, had founded. The second year he was made professor of Latin and Greek, but he was afterward relieved from the Latin department and made professor of Greek exclusively. Save for one interval of a year and a half, when he took a horseback journey through the southern states for his health, he remained at Madison until 1850. Then, on the establishment of the University of Rochester, he was called to the professorship of Greek in that institution. During his stay at Madison he had been called to professorships at Hamilton, Waterville, Brown, and other institutions, and a professorship at Hamilton had been promised to him while he was still a student there. In 1852 he visited Europe, and made a long stay at Rome and Athens, devoting himself there and at other points especially to the study of antiquities. He travelled in northern Greece, and made a journey through the Peloponnesus. Returning in 1854, he took his place as professor in the University of Rochester, with which he is still (1887) connected. From 1865 till 1868, in addition to his usual duties, he filled the chair of Hebrew and New Testament interpretation at Rochester theological seminary, and when the American committees were formed to aid in the revision of the authorized English version of the Bible, 4 Oct., 1872, he was appointed a member of the committee on New Testament revision, and took an active part in the work until its completion in 1880, rarely missing a meeting of the committee for eight years. He was ordained as a Baptist clergyman, but has never had a pastoral charge. In his special department, the Greek language and literature, he is among the foremost scholars of the country, endowed, apart from his broad and accurate knowledge, with a subtile and sensitive appreciation of their beauties; but he has paid much attention to oriental learning also, and is widely read in general literature, touching naturally and familiarly everything pertaining to art and scholarship. Besides various sermons and magazine and review articles, he has published “A Child's Book in Greek”; “Introduction to the Greek Language”; the “Greek Ollendorf” (New York, 1852); a revised edition of the English translation of Olshausen's “Commentary on the New Testament,” many notes being added and some portions translated anew (6 vols., 1853-'8); “Echoes,” a small volume of translations from the French and German poets (Rochester, 1855); “Life of Linus W. Peck”; “Life and Letters of Emily C. Judson” (New York, 1860); a translation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, with notes, for Lange's “Commentary” (1867), a brief work, giving the results attained in a more elaborate and exhaustive work that is still in manuscript; “Our Poetical Favorites,” three volumes of selections (New York, 1870, 1875, 1880); and an edition of Xenophon's “Anabasis,” with notes (1873). He also revised Bullions's Greek grammar, contributed the greater part of the “Life of Rev. James S. Dickerson” (Chicago. 1879), and revised, with notes, Heinrich A. W. Meyer's “Commentary on John” (New York, 1885). — Another son, James Ryland, clergyman, b. in Poultney, Vt., 21 April, 1821; d. in Poughkeepsie, N. Y.. 11 Dec., 1889. He was graduated at Brown in 1840, and for two years was a teacher in Georgia. He was ordained at Forsyth, Ga., in the autumn of 1842, and in 1843 became pastor of a Baptist church in Macon. In 1847 he was called to the pastorate of the 1st Baptist church in Charleston, and in 1854 established the Citadel square church in that city. During the war he preached at Madison, Ga. He had been a Union man throughout the struggle, and in November, 1865, was called to the Tabernacle church, New York city, where he officiated seven years. In 1873-'80 he was pastor of the Baptist church in Poughkeepsie. He was a trustee of Vassar college, and in 1885-'6 was its president. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Rochester university in 1866. He was for some time one of the editors of the “Southern Baptist,” published in Charleston, contributed largely to periodical literature, and published numerous sermons, tracts, and addresses, and, with F. L. Ritter, compiled “The Woman's College Hymnal” (Boston, 1887). — Clark's cousin, Nathaniel, educator, b. in Hanover, N. H., 22 April, 1777; d. in Hamilton, N. Y., 11 Sept., 1848, worked on his father's farm till the age of twenty, and subsequently engaged alternately in teaching and attending the academy. He had been educated as a Congregationalist, but united with the Baptist church, and after studying theology, and being licensed in the spring of 1803, he was ordained pastor of the church at Lansingburg, N. Y., in August, 1805, remaining there until his removal in 1810 to Middlebury, Vt., where he divided his time between several feeble churches. In 1817 he was called to Eaton, N. Y., and in 1822 was elected professor of systematic and pastoral theology in the seminary that had recently been established at Hamilton, N. Y. From 1825 till 1837 he was one of the overseers of Hamilton college, Clinton, N. Y., and in 1836 was chosen president of the Hamilton literary and theological institution (now Madison university), which office he did not accept, although he performed its duties for a time. From 1834 till his death he served as corresponding secretary of the New York Baptist education society. In 1845 he was rendered helpless by a fall, and lingered for three years in great suffering. In 1823 he received the degree of D. D. from Brown. Dr. Kendrick's theology was thoroughly Calvinistic. His publications include a few occasional sermons. See a memoir by his son-in-law, Rev. Samuel W. Adams, D. D.