OBITUARY
OF
Rev. Gardiner Spring, D.D.

(New York Times - August 20, 1873)

Rev. Gardiner Spring died on Monday, in this city, at the advanced age of eighty-nine. His father was Rev. Samuel D. Spring, a warm supporter of the Revolution, and a chaplain in the army in 1775 when Benedict Arnold made his celebrated attack on Quebec. When Aaron Burr fell on the plains of Abraham he carried him off the field, and the friendship formed at that period continued strong and sincere during their lives. After the dual with Hamilton, Burr largely lost social status, but even then Mr. Spring's affection remained unchanged, and it was during a visit to Burr, in New York, that the latter gave utterance to the expression, denouncing Washington as a coward, which gave general offense to the colonists at that time. Mr. Spring was also an intimate personal friend of President Madison, and the autobiography of his son, Rev. Gardiner Spring, contains several letters of Madison on the subject of the Revolution, in which occasion to speak with great bitterness of the Tories. Mr. Spring died in March 1819. Rev. Gardiner Spring was born on the 24th of February, 1785 in Newburyport, Mass., and was the oldest member of his family. In his autobiography he makes particular reference himself as a willful, selfish boy who would brook no control. With growing years he observed that these qualities developed themselves in some instances in a form of deceit, and with deep humiliation he remarked that in manhood and even in old age he had struggled against the dominant and cherished sins of his boyhood. He was by nature as he himself declared, a child of wrath, and he often wondered at the mercy of Providence that kept him out of hell. That his parents did not share with him the opinion which he entertained of himself, is established by the fact that they designed him for the ministry. The rudiments of education were imparted to him in the grammar school of his native town, but he was also placed under the charge of Chief Justice Parsons, who acted in the capacity of a private tutor. In his fifteenth year he entered Yale College, where he became the class-mate of John C. Calhoun, and was one of the oldest graduate of that celebrated institution, for he delivered the valedictory address at the Commencement exercise in 1805. He did not then appear to incline toward the Church, and on leaving college pursued the studies of law in the office of Judge Daggett, in New Haven. The principal portion of his time, however, was occupied in teaching, and he established an English school in the Berumda Islands, where he passed fifteen months. He was admitted to the Bar in 1808, and commenced practice under favorable auspices, but he subsequently abandoned the profession against the wishes of his wife, whom he married in 1803, and declared his intention of becoming a minister. This sudden change he himself attributed to the effect of a sermon preached by Rev. John Mason, in New Haven, from the text, "To the poor the Gospel is preached." He described the impression the discourse produced as miraculous; he could not restrain from tears, and from that moment he followed the ministry with zeal and piety. He spent one year at Andover Theological Seminary, and in the year 1809 was ordained. After receiving calls from several New England parishes he preached in Cedar-street Church in the following spring, and in the same year, by unanimous call, was invited to the pastorate of the old Brick Church in Bookman street in this city. Dr. Spring frequently received calls of higher trust and responsibility, including the presidencies of Dartmouth and Hamilton Colleges, but he did not desire to abandon his first field of labor, and during the sixty-three years of his pastoral care of that church he was regarded as second to no preacher in this city. His congregation removed to Murray Hill in 1851, and in the following year he accepted as his associate Rev. Wm. G. T. Shedd. Dr. Spring's style of preaching was vigorous, simple, and always interesting. He ignored everything vapory, florid, or whatever might produce transient excitement, basing his preaching altogether on the simple truth, as enunciated by Christ. He was an industrious author, and his works, among others, included "The Attraction of the Cross," "The Mercy Seat; or Thoughts Suggested by the Lord's Prayer," "First Things," " The Glory of Christ," "The Power of the Pulpit," "Short Sermons to the People," "The Obligations of the World to the Bible," "Memoirs of the Late Hannah L. Murray," "The Restoration of Israel," "Dissertation on the Rule of Faith," "The Doctrine of Election," "Essays on Christian Character," "The Mission of Sorrow," "Fragments from the Study of a Pastor," "The Bible, Not Man," "Pulpit Ministrations; or, Sabbath Readings, &c.," "Personal Reminiscences, &."

I wish to express great appreciation to Mrs. Hope V. Hatch of Syracuse, NY for providing this information.