The Presbyterian Historical Almanac and Annual Remembrancer of the Church, Volume 10, by Joseph M. Wilson (1868, The Presbyterian Church)
pp. 319-325
CALVIN, D.D., JOSEPH HADDEN — The son of William and Ann (Hadden) Calvin, was born at Stone Bridge, near the town of Colones, county Monaghan, Ireland, June 10, 1828. His father was descended from the Huguenots, and his mother's ancestors came from Aberdeen, Scotland. His father was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church at Stone Bridge, of which Wm. White, D.D., was pastor, who took charge of the education of young Calvin ; and when seventeen years of age he was a thorough classic scholar, being especially fond of Greek, which he read as fluently as the English language.
In 1846 he came to the United States. His uncle, David Hadden, Esq., a prominent citizen of New Orleans, La. , wrote to his eldest sister to send him one of her children to educate, and thus it was that he, the only one of his immediate family found a home in this country. His uncle sent him in February, 1847, to Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., where he was graduated in 1849. The following autumn he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, where he finished his course in 1852, and was licensed by New Brunswick Presbytery in May of that year. He returned to his home in New Orleans the following month and supplied Prytonia Street Church in that city. He had been absent five years in his pursuit of knowledge, and his return was hailed with great delight by his uncle's family and their large circle of friends. His labors in New Orleans were very acceptable, but he wanted a quiet place in the country, and in the following year he became pastor of the churches of Bethlehem and Burton's Hill, in Greene county, Alabama, where he was ordained and installed in October, 1853. These were his only pastoral charges: he served these churches nearly six years, during which time he received other calls ; but he was so happily situated, surrounded by a highly-educated and cultivated people, with ample opportunities for pursuing study, which he loved so much, and as many of his co-presbyters were professors in the Alabama University at Tuscaloosa, then in a very flourishing condition, the attraction was strong for his remaining there. He was greatly beloved and held in the highest estimation. As an illustration of this feeling I refer to the following letter from Capt. R. T. Nott, of Alabama :
"Eutaw, Greene county, Ala., Feb. 2, 1868.
" Joseph M. Wilson — Dear Sir: During the first six years of Mr. Calvin's ministerial labors in Tuscaloosa Presbytery he lived in my house, and after acquaintance formed was to my wife and myself as a faultless son to natural parents. I never knew any one more sincere than he was in every act of his life. He exhibited system — the single eye — in everything, never pretending to more than he really was. He was largely endowed with common sense, and therefore never violated the proprieties of life.
" His mornings were given to study, his afternoons to visiting, his evenings to social enjoyment at home and study.
" He was a most accomplished classical scholar. His studies were confined almost exclusively to such books as furnished useful knowledge, rejecting all light reading.
" His piety was uniform. I cannot call to mind one word or act of his life inconsistent with his profession as a follower of Christ.
" As a pastor he was faithful and diligent. He had the happy faculty of visiting the poorest and most illiterate in their families, without creating any embarrassment. He was most warmly beloved and respected, not only by members of his own church, but by Christians of other denominations and men of the world.
'" Mr. Calvin's pulpit performances, for one so young, were very able and characterized by an earnestness not to be mistaken. He had always special services for the blacks, who attended his preaching in large numbers.
" The members of our Presbytery would testify to his usefulness there, and how his influence was increasing as his experience advanced.
" Studying the conciseness which I know suits your purpose, I may sum up all by saying that he was one of the most lovely men I ever knew in all the qualities of mind and heart If he had been spared, he would have been undoubtedly among the most distinguished scholars and preachers of the Southern Church. But the all-wise God knew best how to dispose of him, and our duty is to bow reverently to his will.
" Very respectfully, R. T. Nott. "
In 1858 he was elected professor of Languages in Austin College, Texas, and though in rather impaired health, he labored assiduously in behalf of the students. His reputation as a scholar was well established ; hence the following year he was called to Oakland College, Miss., where he arrived in 1860, taking the Greek professorship, and soon won for himself the first position in the esteem of students and professors by his genial manners, ready wit, overflowing humor, ripe scholarship and modest deportment.
During the war the college duties were suspended, and at its close he was appointed by the trustees first to carry on a school as a nucleus for the college, and afterward president pro tern., refusing to accept the positionpermanently until it became evident that no other man could fill it to the satisfaction of the friends of the college in the trying circumstances which surrounded the institution at that time — possessing the entire confidence of those living in the immediate vicinity of the college, where, of course, the first movement must be made to inspire new life into the almost extinct remains of what had once been the pride of the old residents in the Southern country. Beginning with one assistant and one pupil in the fall of 1865, by the summer of the following year he had added three additional professors, and the number of students had increased to forty-five. He felt then that the time had come for establishing a first-class college, and on his recommendation the board of trustees appointed a full corps of professors, and in one year from the organization of the college nearly one hundred students had enrolled, and the evidences of steady progress and success were equal to the expectations of the most sanguine. This success was only secured by unremitting devotion to his many duties, and the exposures incident thereto it is thought brought on him a general debility of his system, terminating in death at his residence, Oakland College, Miss., Feb. 14, 1867, of congestive chills.
He married in November, 1858, Miss Carrie Crenchaw [sic: Crenshaw], of Eutaw, Ala., who, with three children, survives him.
James Woodrow, D.D., editor of The Southern Presbyterian, Columbia, S. C. writes:
" The Church has sustained a severe loss in the removal of this valued brother. Endowed by nature with superior talents, he had cultivated them with unremitting assiduity. In scholarship, learning and sound judgment be had few equals in our whole land. He was eminently fitted for the position to which he was appointed a few months ago as president of Oakland College. His retiring modesty would have made him prefer a less conspicuous position, but such were his talents that they could not remain bid. Combining gentleness and loveliness of disposition, purity of heart and life, and unflinching firmness in the discharge of duty, with his superior intellectual character and his rare scholarship, no one could know him without loving, respecting and admiring him."
Henry Martyn Smith, D.D., of New Orleans, La., writes :
" Dr. Calvin was comparatively a young man, but one who had won for himself, in the hearts and minds of those who knew him, a place seldom occupied by men who have attained a longer life. It is not often we find a man so thoroughly at home in scholastic pursuits, who had at the same time such ability and admirable tact and prudence in dealing with men. But in this he was doubtless greatly aided by that magnetic influence which a pure, noble and unselfish nature exerts over us. Dr. Calvin, in the position he occupied at the time of his death, was rapidly rising to eminence. To a most gratifying degree he possessed the confidence of the community, the affection and respect of the students, and the esteem and approval of Synod. Under his direction, in a surprisingly short time, the college was more than recuperating its losses ; and those who knew him and his associates there confidently cherished for it hopes not second to the highest. At any time such a loss would be deeply and widely felt ; at the present juncture it is particularly severe, not only for his bereaved family and friends, the Synod, the college and the Church, but for the whole of the South-west ; and during his lifetime we never doubted that a time would come when the interests of education throughout this whole section of country would reap the benefits of his wisdom, goodness and experience."
R. B. White, D.D., of Gainesville, Va., writes thus :
" It is difficult for the hand of friendship to delineate with perfect fidelity the character of one greatly beloved ; there is a disposition, often unconscious, to soften its asperities and to exaggerate its virtues. Friendships are, however,sometimes based on the real merits of the object of affection, and are not the result of any accidental circumstances ; and in such cases the language of friendship is the language of truth. It often happens that men are superior to their reputation, because they have acted on no public arena, or because the arena on which they have acted has been circumscribed, or because they have been removed from even a conspicuous place too soon for the full display of their excellence. Joseph H. Calvin, whom the writer of this sketch admired only because he deserved to be admired, and praises only because he deserves to be praised, was just beginning to be widely known when God took him. It is the testimony of all who Knew him that he was a superior man, that he was greatly useful, and that he gave promise of far more extended usefulness than he had yet achieved.
" His intellectual character was in many respects superior. His mind was thoroughly disciplined by study and richly stored with knowledge. He was a ripe classical scholar — classical literature seems to have been his specialty. He was also well instructed in mathematics. His metaphysical reading had been large and varied — there were few metaphysical questions which he had not profoundly studied. He had ranged too over the fields of history, and had made himself familiar with most of the good poetry in the English language. At college he was recognized as the first scholar in his class. As a theologian, he embraced the truth, was even severely orthodox, and had studied well the doctrines not only of his own Church, but of other churches — their history and the arguments by which they are supported. Calvin's mind was chiefly distinguished by its analytical power ; he was able to penetrate to the depths of his subject and his reasoning was usually clear and convincing. Although not remarkable for the vigor of his imagination, he was enabled by his familiarity with literature to appropriate all the imagery that was necessary to render his discourses interesting, and to illustrate any subject which he chose to discuss. He proved himself, especially in the latter years of his life, a man of executive ability ; at all times indeed he was attentive to the details of business and wise in the management of them. He was an excellent judge of human character, so much so that he rarely failed to form a just estimate of any man with whom he became acquainted. His knowledge of men seems to have been instinctive; but it doubtless resulted in part from that independence of mind which prevented him from being swayed in his decisions by the representations of friends or overborne by public sentiment.
" A man's manners are not regarded as entering into the essence of his character ; they often are the result mainly of education and association, yet they may be regarded as indicating to a degree a man's intellectual and moral qualities. A full and correct portraiture of a man includes a description of his manners. Dr. Calvin was not distinguished by any remarkable gracefulness of bearing, although in this respect he was not defective. A man of genuine refinement, his manners were, however, remarkably refined. There is no society in the world in which he would not have been recognized as a gentleman. His propriety never forsook him. The noble moral qualities which distinguished him always shone out; his kindness won the sympathy of every heart ; his noble sentiments, his amiable disposition, his extensive knowledge, the brilliant wit which he had brought with him from his native isle, made him one of the most delightful companions that ever adorned a social circle. Yet he never fawned, was never frivolous, and always maintained the dignity which became a Christian minister. In youth he received that reverence in society which is usually conceded only to age. Always considerate and courteous, he was as welcome in the cabins of the poor as the parlors of the cultivated.
" Dr. Calvin was a man of lofty moral character, a man of sincere and earnest piety. He was a pure man ; his abhorrence of sin as an offence against God was conspicuous in all his demeanor. He seemed greatly free from envy. He was a man of genuine magnanimity ; his mind was too much employed about things of importance to permit him to give much attention to things that pertained only to himself.
" His affections were warm, his heart tender and sympathizing, and on this account he was so much endeared to his friends. He was willing to put himself to great inconvenience, as the writer knows, to aid a sick and suffering brother. He was a cheerful man ; his cheerfulness arose, doubtless, partly from his physical constitution, partly from the nice balance of his intellect and affections, principally from his trust in God, a clear conscience, a strong faith, a taste for the beauties of nature, domestic affection, a love for scientific investigations, communion with God, a determination to pursue the right, a benevolent and social disposition, and diligence in the performance of his allotted duties. All these combined produced their natural effect — they rendered him a happy man.
" As a preacher, Dr. Calvin was able, instructive and interesting, rather than brilliant Influenced by a false idea as to the necessity of amplification, his style was sometimes too diffuse. For his office of president of a college he was eminently fitted by his learning, his logical ability, his administrative talents, his industry, his kind and polite demeanor, the weight of his moral character and his earnest, active piety. "
Joseph B. Stratton, D.D., of Natchez, Miss., writes: "The character of this gifted brother presented a rare combination of fine, natural endowments, trained and furnished by thorough culture, with remarkable simplicity and guilelessness. He had made his way from the obscurity of a young, unknown scholar — the native of a foreign land — to very considerable eminence by the mere force of personal merit. His elevation was acquired without any seeking or management of his own, and in the face of certain disadvantages which a manner at first view unprepossessing threw in the way of his advancement. His honesty and singleness of mind were so patent that he never failed to attract to himself the confidence of those with whom he was associated ; and, upon the basis of the relations established by this, the resources of his erudition, the vigor and versatility of his intellect, and the depths of pathos and the sparkle of good-humor and wit which belonged to him as an Irishman, were encouraged to show themselves, and invariably won for him the respect and affection of his acquaintances. He loved truth intensely, and for its own sake, and apprehended it, in its various forms and distinctions, with unusual perspicacity. He was, as a consequence, an instructive preacher, though not an eloquent one, and was recognized in the courts of the Church as one of its most sagacious councilors. He had been a student, in the proper sense of the term, all his life, and had attained a compass and ripeness of scholarship not often reached by men of his age. He had gained for himself the reputation of being one of the most finished masters of the Greek language ana literature who nave been called to occupy a chair in any of the institutions of the South.
" His disinterestedness was carried almost to a fault, although it was perhaps the legitimate expression of that child-like trust in God which distinguished him.
" At the time of his death he had grown to that point of efficiency and popularity which seemed to indicate that he was the instrument appointed by God to resuscitate the institution with which he had been for some years enthusiastically identified, and over which he had just been called to preside. His removal at such a time is an anomaly in Providence over which his friends stand mute. They cannot doubt that for him it is a step onward in development and upward to higher fields of service ; but the withdrawal of his amiable presence, his wealth of learning and the purity and generousness of his example is felt to be a loss to them which will not soon be repaired."
Rev. Robert Price, of Port Gibson, Miss., writes as follows:
"The impression which Dr. Calvin made upon the minds of those who knew him was that he possessed an exceedingly amiable disposition by nature, which was still further improved and elevated by religion. His was one of those happy characters which make many warm and admiring friends, but seldom made an enemy. His popularity was consequently very great where he was known, and greatest where he was known best. The feelings with which he was regarded by his pupils were those of love as well as admiration. This universal popularity, however, was not maintained by the sacrifice of principle, for no man could be more firm and unyielding than he when convinced that any great principle was involved. His habits were rather retiring, and his manners not graceful nor calculated to make a very agreeable impression upon strangers except by their perfect freedom from affectation, but his intercourse with his friends was very affectionate, and in a circle where he was encouraged to unbend, his conversation was characterized by a wit, humor and sense which were irresistibly charming. His religious character was remarkably pure, deep and lovely, resembling that of Melancthon rather than that of Luther.
" His intellect was of a very high order, quick, fertile and inventive, and yet capable of prolonged and laborious investigation. He had received in his boyhood in Ireland an excellent education — much better indeed than boys often get in this country ; and as his habits were studious all through life, his judgment discriminating and his memory singularly retentive, he had made rare attainments in learning at the time of his death. His forte lay in the acquisition of languages. He was a proficient in the Latin and the Greek, which he had taught with great success for a number of years. He also understood the Hebrew, the French and the German. But his acquirements were by no means confined to a single field. There was hardly any branch of learning commonly cultivated by scholars with which he did not have some acquaintance. His professional learning was thorough, especially in the department of biblical interpretation, where his unusual familiarity with the original languages of the Scripture was made to contribute with rare skill and success to its explanation.
"As a preacher he was distinguished by the solidity and fullness of his matter, by an agreeable style, and, when he spoke without his manuscript, by the animation of his manner. In the early part of his ministry he seems to have confined himself closely to his manuscript. But he was not a good reader, and he afterward very properly concluded that an extemporaneous mode of address greatly increased the effectiveness of his preaching. His sermons were eminently scriptural in their tone and sentiment, and were generally drawn not merely from the Scriptures at large, but from the text and context in which he found his subject. He had not been long in the presidency of the college to demonstrate his peculiar fitness for that position, but his scholarship, zeal, enthusiasm and energy, as well as his happy faculty of making friends, both among his pupils and the community at large, led the patrons of the institution to hope that he would be eminently successful in repairing its shattered fortunes. Soon after his death the board of trustees of the college met and passed a series of resolutions expressive of their respect for his memory and their grief at his loss. Similar resolutions were adopted by the faculty over which he had presided, and by the Presbytery of which he had been a beloved and honored member. "
Rev. Richmond Mclnnis, of Forest, Miss., writes thus:
"To sum up Dr. Calvin's character in a few words, we would say that true, earnest piety was the characteristic of his thoughts, words and actions, to which was added an enthusiastic devotion to all that was true in science, that was exalting in intellectual pursuits, to all that was genuine in the inner life ; a generous, social nature, warm heart and tender sympathy for all that was worthy ; a high purpose to work in bis day to the extent of his powers in accomplishing something for the advancement of his fellow-men, and an unsuspecting confidence in his friends ; an abiding trust in Providence and an untiring zeal in the service of his God.
"He was a true friend, an earnest Christian, a ripe scholar, a strong, faithful preacher — not eloquent, but always pointed and full of unction."
pp. 319-325
CALVIN, D.D., JOSEPH HADDEN — The son of William and Ann (Hadden) Calvin, was born at Stone Bridge, near the town of Colones, county Monaghan, Ireland, June 10, 1828. His father was descended from the Huguenots, and his mother's ancestors came from Aberdeen, Scotland. His father was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church at Stone Bridge, of which Wm. White, D.D., was pastor, who took charge of the education of young Calvin ; and when seventeen years of age he was a thorough classic scholar, being especially fond of Greek, which he read as fluently as the English language.
In 1846 he came to the United States. His uncle, David Hadden, Esq., a prominent citizen of New Orleans, La. , wrote to his eldest sister to send him one of her children to educate, and thus it was that he, the only one of his immediate family found a home in this country. His uncle sent him in February, 1847, to Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., where he was graduated in 1849. The following autumn he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, where he finished his course in 1852, and was licensed by New Brunswick Presbytery in May of that year. He returned to his home in New Orleans the following month and supplied Prytonia Street Church in that city. He had been absent five years in his pursuit of knowledge, and his return was hailed with great delight by his uncle's family and their large circle of friends. His labors in New Orleans were very acceptable, but he wanted a quiet place in the country, and in the following year he became pastor of the churches of Bethlehem and Burton's Hill, in Greene county, Alabama, where he was ordained and installed in October, 1853. These were his only pastoral charges: he served these churches nearly six years, during which time he received other calls ; but he was so happily situated, surrounded by a highly-educated and cultivated people, with ample opportunities for pursuing study, which he loved so much, and as many of his co-presbyters were professors in the Alabama University at Tuscaloosa, then in a very flourishing condition, the attraction was strong for his remaining there. He was greatly beloved and held in the highest estimation. As an illustration of this feeling I refer to the following letter from Capt. R. T. Nott, of Alabama :
"Eutaw, Greene county, Ala., Feb. 2, 1868.
" Joseph M. Wilson — Dear Sir: During the first six years of Mr. Calvin's ministerial labors in Tuscaloosa Presbytery he lived in my house, and after acquaintance formed was to my wife and myself as a faultless son to natural parents. I never knew any one more sincere than he was in every act of his life. He exhibited system — the single eye — in everything, never pretending to more than he really was. He was largely endowed with common sense, and therefore never violated the proprieties of life.
" His mornings were given to study, his afternoons to visiting, his evenings to social enjoyment at home and study.
" He was a most accomplished classical scholar. His studies were confined almost exclusively to such books as furnished useful knowledge, rejecting all light reading.
" His piety was uniform. I cannot call to mind one word or act of his life inconsistent with his profession as a follower of Christ.
" As a pastor he was faithful and diligent. He had the happy faculty of visiting the poorest and most illiterate in their families, without creating any embarrassment. He was most warmly beloved and respected, not only by members of his own church, but by Christians of other denominations and men of the world.
'" Mr. Calvin's pulpit performances, for one so young, were very able and characterized by an earnestness not to be mistaken. He had always special services for the blacks, who attended his preaching in large numbers.
" The members of our Presbytery would testify to his usefulness there, and how his influence was increasing as his experience advanced.
" Studying the conciseness which I know suits your purpose, I may sum up all by saying that he was one of the most lovely men I ever knew in all the qualities of mind and heart If he had been spared, he would have been undoubtedly among the most distinguished scholars and preachers of the Southern Church. But the all-wise God knew best how to dispose of him, and our duty is to bow reverently to his will.
" Very respectfully, R. T. Nott. "
In 1858 he was elected professor of Languages in Austin College, Texas, and though in rather impaired health, he labored assiduously in behalf of the students. His reputation as a scholar was well established ; hence the following year he was called to Oakland College, Miss., where he arrived in 1860, taking the Greek professorship, and soon won for himself the first position in the esteem of students and professors by his genial manners, ready wit, overflowing humor, ripe scholarship and modest deportment.
During the war the college duties were suspended, and at its close he was appointed by the trustees first to carry on a school as a nucleus for the college, and afterward president pro tern., refusing to accept the positionpermanently until it became evident that no other man could fill it to the satisfaction of the friends of the college in the trying circumstances which surrounded the institution at that time — possessing the entire confidence of those living in the immediate vicinity of the college, where, of course, the first movement must be made to inspire new life into the almost extinct remains of what had once been the pride of the old residents in the Southern country. Beginning with one assistant and one pupil in the fall of 1865, by the summer of the following year he had added three additional professors, and the number of students had increased to forty-five. He felt then that the time had come for establishing a first-class college, and on his recommendation the board of trustees appointed a full corps of professors, and in one year from the organization of the college nearly one hundred students had enrolled, and the evidences of steady progress and success were equal to the expectations of the most sanguine. This success was only secured by unremitting devotion to his many duties, and the exposures incident thereto it is thought brought on him a general debility of his system, terminating in death at his residence, Oakland College, Miss., Feb. 14, 1867, of congestive chills.
He married in November, 1858, Miss Carrie Crenchaw [sic: Crenshaw], of Eutaw, Ala., who, with three children, survives him.
James Woodrow, D.D., editor of The Southern Presbyterian, Columbia, S. C. writes:
" The Church has sustained a severe loss in the removal of this valued brother. Endowed by nature with superior talents, he had cultivated them with unremitting assiduity. In scholarship, learning and sound judgment be had few equals in our whole land. He was eminently fitted for the position to which he was appointed a few months ago as president of Oakland College. His retiring modesty would have made him prefer a less conspicuous position, but such were his talents that they could not remain bid. Combining gentleness and loveliness of disposition, purity of heart and life, and unflinching firmness in the discharge of duty, with his superior intellectual character and his rare scholarship, no one could know him without loving, respecting and admiring him."
Henry Martyn Smith, D.D., of New Orleans, La., writes :
" Dr. Calvin was comparatively a young man, but one who had won for himself, in the hearts and minds of those who knew him, a place seldom occupied by men who have attained a longer life. It is not often we find a man so thoroughly at home in scholastic pursuits, who had at the same time such ability and admirable tact and prudence in dealing with men. But in this he was doubtless greatly aided by that magnetic influence which a pure, noble and unselfish nature exerts over us. Dr. Calvin, in the position he occupied at the time of his death, was rapidly rising to eminence. To a most gratifying degree he possessed the confidence of the community, the affection and respect of the students, and the esteem and approval of Synod. Under his direction, in a surprisingly short time, the college was more than recuperating its losses ; and those who knew him and his associates there confidently cherished for it hopes not second to the highest. At any time such a loss would be deeply and widely felt ; at the present juncture it is particularly severe, not only for his bereaved family and friends, the Synod, the college and the Church, but for the whole of the South-west ; and during his lifetime we never doubted that a time would come when the interests of education throughout this whole section of country would reap the benefits of his wisdom, goodness and experience."
R. B. White, D.D., of Gainesville, Va., writes thus :
" It is difficult for the hand of friendship to delineate with perfect fidelity the character of one greatly beloved ; there is a disposition, often unconscious, to soften its asperities and to exaggerate its virtues. Friendships are, however,sometimes based on the real merits of the object of affection, and are not the result of any accidental circumstances ; and in such cases the language of friendship is the language of truth. It often happens that men are superior to their reputation, because they have acted on no public arena, or because the arena on which they have acted has been circumscribed, or because they have been removed from even a conspicuous place too soon for the full display of their excellence. Joseph H. Calvin, whom the writer of this sketch admired only because he deserved to be admired, and praises only because he deserves to be praised, was just beginning to be widely known when God took him. It is the testimony of all who Knew him that he was a superior man, that he was greatly useful, and that he gave promise of far more extended usefulness than he had yet achieved.
" His intellectual character was in many respects superior. His mind was thoroughly disciplined by study and richly stored with knowledge. He was a ripe classical scholar — classical literature seems to have been his specialty. He was also well instructed in mathematics. His metaphysical reading had been large and varied — there were few metaphysical questions which he had not profoundly studied. He had ranged too over the fields of history, and had made himself familiar with most of the good poetry in the English language. At college he was recognized as the first scholar in his class. As a theologian, he embraced the truth, was even severely orthodox, and had studied well the doctrines not only of his own Church, but of other churches — their history and the arguments by which they are supported. Calvin's mind was chiefly distinguished by its analytical power ; he was able to penetrate to the depths of his subject and his reasoning was usually clear and convincing. Although not remarkable for the vigor of his imagination, he was enabled by his familiarity with literature to appropriate all the imagery that was necessary to render his discourses interesting, and to illustrate any subject which he chose to discuss. He proved himself, especially in the latter years of his life, a man of executive ability ; at all times indeed he was attentive to the details of business and wise in the management of them. He was an excellent judge of human character, so much so that he rarely failed to form a just estimate of any man with whom he became acquainted. His knowledge of men seems to have been instinctive; but it doubtless resulted in part from that independence of mind which prevented him from being swayed in his decisions by the representations of friends or overborne by public sentiment.
" A man's manners are not regarded as entering into the essence of his character ; they often are the result mainly of education and association, yet they may be regarded as indicating to a degree a man's intellectual and moral qualities. A full and correct portraiture of a man includes a description of his manners. Dr. Calvin was not distinguished by any remarkable gracefulness of bearing, although in this respect he was not defective. A man of genuine refinement, his manners were, however, remarkably refined. There is no society in the world in which he would not have been recognized as a gentleman. His propriety never forsook him. The noble moral qualities which distinguished him always shone out; his kindness won the sympathy of every heart ; his noble sentiments, his amiable disposition, his extensive knowledge, the brilliant wit which he had brought with him from his native isle, made him one of the most delightful companions that ever adorned a social circle. Yet he never fawned, was never frivolous, and always maintained the dignity which became a Christian minister. In youth he received that reverence in society which is usually conceded only to age. Always considerate and courteous, he was as welcome in the cabins of the poor as the parlors of the cultivated.
" Dr. Calvin was a man of lofty moral character, a man of sincere and earnest piety. He was a pure man ; his abhorrence of sin as an offence against God was conspicuous in all his demeanor. He seemed greatly free from envy. He was a man of genuine magnanimity ; his mind was too much employed about things of importance to permit him to give much attention to things that pertained only to himself.
" His affections were warm, his heart tender and sympathizing, and on this account he was so much endeared to his friends. He was willing to put himself to great inconvenience, as the writer knows, to aid a sick and suffering brother. He was a cheerful man ; his cheerfulness arose, doubtless, partly from his physical constitution, partly from the nice balance of his intellect and affections, principally from his trust in God, a clear conscience, a strong faith, a taste for the beauties of nature, domestic affection, a love for scientific investigations, communion with God, a determination to pursue the right, a benevolent and social disposition, and diligence in the performance of his allotted duties. All these combined produced their natural effect — they rendered him a happy man.
" As a preacher, Dr. Calvin was able, instructive and interesting, rather than brilliant Influenced by a false idea as to the necessity of amplification, his style was sometimes too diffuse. For his office of president of a college he was eminently fitted by his learning, his logical ability, his administrative talents, his industry, his kind and polite demeanor, the weight of his moral character and his earnest, active piety. "
Joseph B. Stratton, D.D., of Natchez, Miss., writes: "The character of this gifted brother presented a rare combination of fine, natural endowments, trained and furnished by thorough culture, with remarkable simplicity and guilelessness. He had made his way from the obscurity of a young, unknown scholar — the native of a foreign land — to very considerable eminence by the mere force of personal merit. His elevation was acquired without any seeking or management of his own, and in the face of certain disadvantages which a manner at first view unprepossessing threw in the way of his advancement. His honesty and singleness of mind were so patent that he never failed to attract to himself the confidence of those with whom he was associated ; and, upon the basis of the relations established by this, the resources of his erudition, the vigor and versatility of his intellect, and the depths of pathos and the sparkle of good-humor and wit which belonged to him as an Irishman, were encouraged to show themselves, and invariably won for him the respect and affection of his acquaintances. He loved truth intensely, and for its own sake, and apprehended it, in its various forms and distinctions, with unusual perspicacity. He was, as a consequence, an instructive preacher, though not an eloquent one, and was recognized in the courts of the Church as one of its most sagacious councilors. He had been a student, in the proper sense of the term, all his life, and had attained a compass and ripeness of scholarship not often reached by men of his age. He had gained for himself the reputation of being one of the most finished masters of the Greek language ana literature who nave been called to occupy a chair in any of the institutions of the South.
" His disinterestedness was carried almost to a fault, although it was perhaps the legitimate expression of that child-like trust in God which distinguished him.
" At the time of his death he had grown to that point of efficiency and popularity which seemed to indicate that he was the instrument appointed by God to resuscitate the institution with which he had been for some years enthusiastically identified, and over which he had just been called to preside. His removal at such a time is an anomaly in Providence over which his friends stand mute. They cannot doubt that for him it is a step onward in development and upward to higher fields of service ; but the withdrawal of his amiable presence, his wealth of learning and the purity and generousness of his example is felt to be a loss to them which will not soon be repaired."
Rev. Robert Price, of Port Gibson, Miss., writes as follows:
"The impression which Dr. Calvin made upon the minds of those who knew him was that he possessed an exceedingly amiable disposition by nature, which was still further improved and elevated by religion. His was one of those happy characters which make many warm and admiring friends, but seldom made an enemy. His popularity was consequently very great where he was known, and greatest where he was known best. The feelings with which he was regarded by his pupils were those of love as well as admiration. This universal popularity, however, was not maintained by the sacrifice of principle, for no man could be more firm and unyielding than he when convinced that any great principle was involved. His habits were rather retiring, and his manners not graceful nor calculated to make a very agreeable impression upon strangers except by their perfect freedom from affectation, but his intercourse with his friends was very affectionate, and in a circle where he was encouraged to unbend, his conversation was characterized by a wit, humor and sense which were irresistibly charming. His religious character was remarkably pure, deep and lovely, resembling that of Melancthon rather than that of Luther.
" His intellect was of a very high order, quick, fertile and inventive, and yet capable of prolonged and laborious investigation. He had received in his boyhood in Ireland an excellent education — much better indeed than boys often get in this country ; and as his habits were studious all through life, his judgment discriminating and his memory singularly retentive, he had made rare attainments in learning at the time of his death. His forte lay in the acquisition of languages. He was a proficient in the Latin and the Greek, which he had taught with great success for a number of years. He also understood the Hebrew, the French and the German. But his acquirements were by no means confined to a single field. There was hardly any branch of learning commonly cultivated by scholars with which he did not have some acquaintance. His professional learning was thorough, especially in the department of biblical interpretation, where his unusual familiarity with the original languages of the Scripture was made to contribute with rare skill and success to its explanation.
"As a preacher he was distinguished by the solidity and fullness of his matter, by an agreeable style, and, when he spoke without his manuscript, by the animation of his manner. In the early part of his ministry he seems to have confined himself closely to his manuscript. But he was not a good reader, and he afterward very properly concluded that an extemporaneous mode of address greatly increased the effectiveness of his preaching. His sermons were eminently scriptural in their tone and sentiment, and were generally drawn not merely from the Scriptures at large, but from the text and context in which he found his subject. He had not been long in the presidency of the college to demonstrate his peculiar fitness for that position, but his scholarship, zeal, enthusiasm and energy, as well as his happy faculty of making friends, both among his pupils and the community at large, led the patrons of the institution to hope that he would be eminently successful in repairing its shattered fortunes. Soon after his death the board of trustees of the college met and passed a series of resolutions expressive of their respect for his memory and their grief at his loss. Similar resolutions were adopted by the faculty over which he had presided, and by the Presbytery of which he had been a beloved and honored member. "
Rev. Richmond Mclnnis, of Forest, Miss., writes thus:
"To sum up Dr. Calvin's character in a few words, we would say that true, earnest piety was the characteristic of his thoughts, words and actions, to which was added an enthusiastic devotion to all that was true in science, that was exalting in intellectual pursuits, to all that was genuine in the inner life ; a generous, social nature, warm heart and tender sympathy for all that was worthy ; a high purpose to work in bis day to the extent of his powers in accomplishing something for the advancement of his fellow-men, and an unsuspecting confidence in his friends ; an abiding trust in Providence and an untiring zeal in the service of his God.
"He was a true friend, an earnest Christian, a ripe scholar, a strong, faithful preacher — not eloquent, but always pointed and full of unction."
The Presbyterian Historical Almanac and Annual Remembrancer of the Church, Volume 10, by Joseph M. Wilson (1868, The Presbyterian Church)
pp. 319-325
CALVIN, D.D., JOSEPH HADDEN — The son of William and Ann (Hadden) Calvin, was born at Stone Bridge, near the town of Colones, county Monaghan, Ireland, June 10, 1828. His father was descended from the Huguenots, and his mother's ancestors came from Aberdeen, Scotland. His father was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church at Stone Bridge, of which Wm. White, D.D., was pastor, who took charge of the education of young Calvin ; and when seventeen years of age he was a thorough classic scholar, being especially fond of Greek, which he read as fluently as the English language.
In 1846 he came to the United States. His uncle, David Hadden, Esq., a prominent citizen of New Orleans, La. , wrote to his eldest sister to send him one of her children to educate, and thus it was that he, the only one of his immediate family found a home in this country. His uncle sent him in February, 1847, to Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., where he was graduated in 1849. The following autumn he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, where he finished his course in 1852, and was licensed by New Brunswick Presbytery in May of that year. He returned to his home in New Orleans the following month and supplied Prytonia Street Church in that city. He had been absent five years in his pursuit of knowledge, and his return was hailed with great delight by his uncle's family and their large circle of friends. His labors in New Orleans were very acceptable, but he wanted a quiet place in the country, and in the following year he became pastor of the churches of Bethlehem and Burton's Hill, in Greene county, Alabama, where he was ordained and installed in October, 1853. These were his only pastoral charges: he served these churches nearly six years, during which time he received other calls ; but he was so happily situated, surrounded by a highly-educated and cultivated people, with ample opportunities for pursuing study, which he loved so much, and as many of his co-presbyters were professors in the Alabama University at Tuscaloosa, then in a very flourishing condition, the attraction was strong for his remaining there. He was greatly beloved and held in the highest estimation. As an illustration of this feeling I refer to the following letter from Capt. R. T. Nott, of Alabama :
"Eutaw, Greene county, Ala., Feb. 2, 1868.
" Joseph M. Wilson — Dear Sir: During the first six years of Mr. Calvin's ministerial labors in Tuscaloosa Presbytery he lived in my house, and after acquaintance formed was to my wife and myself as a faultless son to natural parents. I never knew any one more sincere than he was in every act of his life. He exhibited system — the single eye — in everything, never pretending to more than he really was. He was largely endowed with common sense, and therefore never violated the proprieties of life.
" His mornings were given to study, his afternoons to visiting, his evenings to social enjoyment at home and study.
" He was a most accomplished classical scholar. His studies were confined almost exclusively to such books as furnished useful knowledge, rejecting all light reading.
" His piety was uniform. I cannot call to mind one word or act of his life inconsistent with his profession as a follower of Christ.
" As a pastor he was faithful and diligent. He had the happy faculty of visiting the poorest and most illiterate in their families, without creating any embarrassment. He was most warmly beloved and respected, not only by members of his own church, but by Christians of other denominations and men of the world.
'" Mr. Calvin's pulpit performances, for one so young, were very able and characterized by an earnestness not to be mistaken. He had always special services for the blacks, who attended his preaching in large numbers.
" The members of our Presbytery would testify to his usefulness there, and how his influence was increasing as his experience advanced.
" Studying the conciseness which I know suits your purpose, I may sum up all by saying that he was one of the most lovely men I ever knew in all the qualities of mind and heart If he had been spared, he would have been undoubtedly among the most distinguished scholars and preachers of the Southern Church. But the all-wise God knew best how to dispose of him, and our duty is to bow reverently to his will.
" Very respectfully, R. T. Nott. "
In 1858 he was elected professor of Languages in Austin College, Texas, and though in rather impaired health, he labored assiduously in behalf of the students. His reputation as a scholar was well established ; hence the following year he was called to Oakland College, Miss., where he arrived in 1860, taking the Greek professorship, and soon won for himself the first position in the esteem of students and professors by his genial manners, ready wit, overflowing humor, ripe scholarship and modest deportment.
During the war the college duties were suspended, and at its close he was appointed by the trustees first to carry on a school as a nucleus for the college, and afterward president pro tern., refusing to accept the positionpermanently until it became evident that no other man could fill it to the satisfaction of the friends of the college in the trying circumstances which surrounded the institution at that time — possessing the entire confidence of those living in the immediate vicinity of the college, where, of course, the first movement must be made to inspire new life into the almost extinct remains of what had once been the pride of the old residents in the Southern country. Beginning with one assistant and one pupil in the fall of 1865, by the summer of the following year he had added three additional professors, and the number of students had increased to forty-five. He felt then that the time had come for establishing a first-class college, and on his recommendation the board of trustees appointed a full corps of professors, and in one year from the organization of the college nearly one hundred students had enrolled, and the evidences of steady progress and success were equal to the expectations of the most sanguine. This success was only secured by unremitting devotion to his many duties, and the exposures incident thereto it is thought brought on him a general debility of his system, terminating in death at his residence, Oakland College, Miss., Feb. 14, 1867, of congestive chills.
He married in November, 1858, Miss Carrie Crenchaw [sic: Crenshaw], of Eutaw, Ala., who, with three children, survives him.
James Woodrow, D.D., editor of The Southern Presbyterian, Columbia, S. C. writes:
" The Church has sustained a severe loss in the removal of this valued brother. Endowed by nature with superior talents, he had cultivated them with unremitting assiduity. In scholarship, learning and sound judgment be had few equals in our whole land. He was eminently fitted for the position to which he was appointed a few months ago as president of Oakland College. His retiring modesty would have made him prefer a less conspicuous position, but such were his talents that they could not remain bid. Combining gentleness and loveliness of disposition, purity of heart and life, and unflinching firmness in the discharge of duty, with his superior intellectual character and his rare scholarship, no one could know him without loving, respecting and admiring him."
Henry Martyn Smith, D.D., of New Orleans, La., writes :
" Dr. Calvin was comparatively a young man, but one who had won for himself, in the hearts and minds of those who knew him, a place seldom occupied by men who have attained a longer life. It is not often we find a man so thoroughly at home in scholastic pursuits, who had at the same time such ability and admirable tact and prudence in dealing with men. But in this he was doubtless greatly aided by that magnetic influence which a pure, noble and unselfish nature exerts over us. Dr. Calvin, in the position he occupied at the time of his death, was rapidly rising to eminence. To a most gratifying degree he possessed the confidence of the community, the affection and respect of the students, and the esteem and approval of Synod. Under his direction, in a surprisingly short time, the college was more than recuperating its losses ; and those who knew him and his associates there confidently cherished for it hopes not second to the highest. At any time such a loss would be deeply and widely felt ; at the present juncture it is particularly severe, not only for his bereaved family and friends, the Synod, the college and the Church, but for the whole of the South-west ; and during his lifetime we never doubted that a time would come when the interests of education throughout this whole section of country would reap the benefits of his wisdom, goodness and experience."
R. B. White, D.D., of Gainesville, Va., writes thus :
" It is difficult for the hand of friendship to delineate with perfect fidelity the character of one greatly beloved ; there is a disposition, often unconscious, to soften its asperities and to exaggerate its virtues. Friendships are, however,sometimes based on the real merits of the object of affection, and are not the result of any accidental circumstances ; and in such cases the language of friendship is the language of truth. It often happens that men are superior to their reputation, because they have acted on no public arena, or because the arena on which they have acted has been circumscribed, or because they have been removed from even a conspicuous place too soon for the full display of their excellence. Joseph H. Calvin, whom the writer of this sketch admired only because he deserved to be admired, and praises only because he deserves to be praised, was just beginning to be widely known when God took him. It is the testimony of all who Knew him that he was a superior man, that he was greatly useful, and that he gave promise of far more extended usefulness than he had yet achieved.
" His intellectual character was in many respects superior. His mind was thoroughly disciplined by study and richly stored with knowledge. He was a ripe classical scholar — classical literature seems to have been his specialty. He was also well instructed in mathematics. His metaphysical reading had been large and varied — there were few metaphysical questions which he had not profoundly studied. He had ranged too over the fields of history, and had made himself familiar with most of the good poetry in the English language. At college he was recognized as the first scholar in his class. As a theologian, he embraced the truth, was even severely orthodox, and had studied well the doctrines not only of his own Church, but of other churches — their history and the arguments by which they are supported. Calvin's mind was chiefly distinguished by its analytical power ; he was able to penetrate to the depths of his subject and his reasoning was usually clear and convincing. Although not remarkable for the vigor of his imagination, he was enabled by his familiarity with literature to appropriate all the imagery that was necessary to render his discourses interesting, and to illustrate any subject which he chose to discuss. He proved himself, especially in the latter years of his life, a man of executive ability ; at all times indeed he was attentive to the details of business and wise in the management of them. He was an excellent judge of human character, so much so that he rarely failed to form a just estimate of any man with whom he became acquainted. His knowledge of men seems to have been instinctive; but it doubtless resulted in part from that independence of mind which prevented him from being swayed in his decisions by the representations of friends or overborne by public sentiment.
" A man's manners are not regarded as entering into the essence of his character ; they often are the result mainly of education and association, yet they may be regarded as indicating to a degree a man's intellectual and moral qualities. A full and correct portraiture of a man includes a description of his manners. Dr. Calvin was not distinguished by any remarkable gracefulness of bearing, although in this respect he was not defective. A man of genuine refinement, his manners were, however, remarkably refined. There is no society in the world in which he would not have been recognized as a gentleman. His propriety never forsook him. The noble moral qualities which distinguished him always shone out; his kindness won the sympathy of every heart ; his noble sentiments, his amiable disposition, his extensive knowledge, the brilliant wit which he had brought with him from his native isle, made him one of the most delightful companions that ever adorned a social circle. Yet he never fawned, was never frivolous, and always maintained the dignity which became a Christian minister. In youth he received that reverence in society which is usually conceded only to age. Always considerate and courteous, he was as welcome in the cabins of the poor as the parlors of the cultivated.
" Dr. Calvin was a man of lofty moral character, a man of sincere and earnest piety. He was a pure man ; his abhorrence of sin as an offence against God was conspicuous in all his demeanor. He seemed greatly free from envy. He was a man of genuine magnanimity ; his mind was too much employed about things of importance to permit him to give much attention to things that pertained only to himself.
" His affections were warm, his heart tender and sympathizing, and on this account he was so much endeared to his friends. He was willing to put himself to great inconvenience, as the writer knows, to aid a sick and suffering brother. He was a cheerful man ; his cheerfulness arose, doubtless, partly from his physical constitution, partly from the nice balance of his intellect and affections, principally from his trust in God, a clear conscience, a strong faith, a taste for the beauties of nature, domestic affection, a love for scientific investigations, communion with God, a determination to pursue the right, a benevolent and social disposition, and diligence in the performance of his allotted duties. All these combined produced their natural effect — they rendered him a happy man.
" As a preacher, Dr. Calvin was able, instructive and interesting, rather than brilliant Influenced by a false idea as to the necessity of amplification, his style was sometimes too diffuse. For his office of president of a college he was eminently fitted by his learning, his logical ability, his administrative talents, his industry, his kind and polite demeanor, the weight of his moral character and his earnest, active piety. "
Joseph B. Stratton, D.D., of Natchez, Miss., writes: "The character of this gifted brother presented a rare combination of fine, natural endowments, trained and furnished by thorough culture, with remarkable simplicity and guilelessness. He had made his way from the obscurity of a young, unknown scholar — the native of a foreign land — to very considerable eminence by the mere force of personal merit. His elevation was acquired without any seeking or management of his own, and in the face of certain disadvantages which a manner at first view unprepossessing threw in the way of his advancement. His honesty and singleness of mind were so patent that he never failed to attract to himself the confidence of those with whom he was associated ; and, upon the basis of the relations established by this, the resources of his erudition, the vigor and versatility of his intellect, and the depths of pathos and the sparkle of good-humor and wit which belonged to him as an Irishman, were encouraged to show themselves, and invariably won for him the respect and affection of his acquaintances. He loved truth intensely, and for its own sake, and apprehended it, in its various forms and distinctions, with unusual perspicacity. He was, as a consequence, an instructive preacher, though not an eloquent one, and was recognized in the courts of the Church as one of its most sagacious councilors. He had been a student, in the proper sense of the term, all his life, and had attained a compass and ripeness of scholarship not often reached by men of his age. He had gained for himself the reputation of being one of the most finished masters of the Greek language ana literature who nave been called to occupy a chair in any of the institutions of the South.
" His disinterestedness was carried almost to a fault, although it was perhaps the legitimate expression of that child-like trust in God which distinguished him.
" At the time of his death he had grown to that point of efficiency and popularity which seemed to indicate that he was the instrument appointed by God to resuscitate the institution with which he had been for some years enthusiastically identified, and over which he had just been called to preside. His removal at such a time is an anomaly in Providence over which his friends stand mute. They cannot doubt that for him it is a step onward in development and upward to higher fields of service ; but the withdrawal of his amiable presence, his wealth of learning and the purity and generousness of his example is felt to be a loss to them which will not soon be repaired."
Rev. Robert Price, of Port Gibson, Miss., writes as follows:
"The impression which Dr. Calvin made upon the minds of those who knew him was that he possessed an exceedingly amiable disposition by nature, which was still further improved and elevated by religion. His was one of those happy characters which make many warm and admiring friends, but seldom made an enemy. His popularity was consequently very great where he was known, and greatest where he was known best. The feelings with which he was regarded by his pupils were those of love as well as admiration. This universal popularity, however, was not maintained by the sacrifice of principle, for no man could be more firm and unyielding than he when convinced that any great principle was involved. His habits were rather retiring, and his manners not graceful nor calculated to make a very agreeable impression upon strangers except by their perfect freedom from affectation, but his intercourse with his friends was very affectionate, and in a circle where he was encouraged to unbend, his conversation was characterized by a wit, humor and sense which were irresistibly charming. His religious character was remarkably pure, deep and lovely, resembling that of Melancthon rather than that of Luther.
" His intellect was of a very high order, quick, fertile and inventive, and yet capable of prolonged and laborious investigation. He had received in his boyhood in Ireland an excellent education — much better indeed than boys often get in this country ; and as his habits were studious all through life, his judgment discriminating and his memory singularly retentive, he had made rare attainments in learning at the time of his death. His forte lay in the acquisition of languages. He was a proficient in the Latin and the Greek, which he had taught with great success for a number of years. He also understood the Hebrew, the French and the German. But his acquirements were by no means confined to a single field. There was hardly any branch of learning commonly cultivated by scholars with which he did not have some acquaintance. His professional learning was thorough, especially in the department of biblical interpretation, where his unusual familiarity with the original languages of the Scripture was made to contribute with rare skill and success to its explanation.
"As a preacher he was distinguished by the solidity and fullness of his matter, by an agreeable style, and, when he spoke without his manuscript, by the animation of his manner. In the early part of his ministry he seems to have confined himself closely to his manuscript. But he was not a good reader, and he afterward very properly concluded that an extemporaneous mode of address greatly increased the effectiveness of his preaching. His sermons were eminently scriptural in their tone and sentiment, and were generally drawn not merely from the Scriptures at large, but from the text and context in which he found his subject. He had not been long in the presidency of the college to demonstrate his peculiar fitness for that position, but his scholarship, zeal, enthusiasm and energy, as well as his happy faculty of making friends, both among his pupils and the community at large, led the patrons of the institution to hope that he would be eminently successful in repairing its shattered fortunes. Soon after his death the board of trustees of the college met and passed a series of resolutions expressive of their respect for his memory and their grief at his loss. Similar resolutions were adopted by the faculty over which he had presided, and by the Presbytery of which he had been a beloved and honored member. "
Rev. Richmond Mclnnis, of Forest, Miss., writes thus:
"To sum up Dr. Calvin's character in a few words, we would say that true, earnest piety was the characteristic of his thoughts, words and actions, to which was added an enthusiastic devotion to all that was true in science, that was exalting in intellectual pursuits, to all that was genuine in the inner life ; a generous, social nature, warm heart and tender sympathy for all that was worthy ; a high purpose to work in bis day to the extent of his powers in accomplishing something for the advancement of his fellow-men, and an unsuspecting confidence in his friends ; an abiding trust in Providence and an untiring zeal in the service of his God.
"He was a true friend, an earnest Christian, a ripe scholar, a strong, faithful preacher — not eloquent, but always pointed and full of unction."
pp. 319-325
CALVIN, D.D., JOSEPH HADDEN — The son of William and Ann (Hadden) Calvin, was born at Stone Bridge, near the town of Colones, county Monaghan, Ireland, June 10, 1828. His father was descended from the Huguenots, and his mother's ancestors came from Aberdeen, Scotland. His father was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church at Stone Bridge, of which Wm. White, D.D., was pastor, who took charge of the education of young Calvin ; and when seventeen years of age he was a thorough classic scholar, being especially fond of Greek, which he read as fluently as the English language.
In 1846 he came to the United States. His uncle, David Hadden, Esq., a prominent citizen of New Orleans, La. , wrote to his eldest sister to send him one of her children to educate, and thus it was that he, the only one of his immediate family found a home in this country. His uncle sent him in February, 1847, to Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., where he was graduated in 1849. The following autumn he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, where he finished his course in 1852, and was licensed by New Brunswick Presbytery in May of that year. He returned to his home in New Orleans the following month and supplied Prytonia Street Church in that city. He had been absent five years in his pursuit of knowledge, and his return was hailed with great delight by his uncle's family and their large circle of friends. His labors in New Orleans were very acceptable, but he wanted a quiet place in the country, and in the following year he became pastor of the churches of Bethlehem and Burton's Hill, in Greene county, Alabama, where he was ordained and installed in October, 1853. These were his only pastoral charges: he served these churches nearly six years, during which time he received other calls ; but he was so happily situated, surrounded by a highly-educated and cultivated people, with ample opportunities for pursuing study, which he loved so much, and as many of his co-presbyters were professors in the Alabama University at Tuscaloosa, then in a very flourishing condition, the attraction was strong for his remaining there. He was greatly beloved and held in the highest estimation. As an illustration of this feeling I refer to the following letter from Capt. R. T. Nott, of Alabama :
"Eutaw, Greene county, Ala., Feb. 2, 1868.
" Joseph M. Wilson — Dear Sir: During the first six years of Mr. Calvin's ministerial labors in Tuscaloosa Presbytery he lived in my house, and after acquaintance formed was to my wife and myself as a faultless son to natural parents. I never knew any one more sincere than he was in every act of his life. He exhibited system — the single eye — in everything, never pretending to more than he really was. He was largely endowed with common sense, and therefore never violated the proprieties of life.
" His mornings were given to study, his afternoons to visiting, his evenings to social enjoyment at home and study.
" He was a most accomplished classical scholar. His studies were confined almost exclusively to such books as furnished useful knowledge, rejecting all light reading.
" His piety was uniform. I cannot call to mind one word or act of his life inconsistent with his profession as a follower of Christ.
" As a pastor he was faithful and diligent. He had the happy faculty of visiting the poorest and most illiterate in their families, without creating any embarrassment. He was most warmly beloved and respected, not only by members of his own church, but by Christians of other denominations and men of the world.
'" Mr. Calvin's pulpit performances, for one so young, were very able and characterized by an earnestness not to be mistaken. He had always special services for the blacks, who attended his preaching in large numbers.
" The members of our Presbytery would testify to his usefulness there, and how his influence was increasing as his experience advanced.
" Studying the conciseness which I know suits your purpose, I may sum up all by saying that he was one of the most lovely men I ever knew in all the qualities of mind and heart If he had been spared, he would have been undoubtedly among the most distinguished scholars and preachers of the Southern Church. But the all-wise God knew best how to dispose of him, and our duty is to bow reverently to his will.
" Very respectfully, R. T. Nott. "
In 1858 he was elected professor of Languages in Austin College, Texas, and though in rather impaired health, he labored assiduously in behalf of the students. His reputation as a scholar was well established ; hence the following year he was called to Oakland College, Miss., where he arrived in 1860, taking the Greek professorship, and soon won for himself the first position in the esteem of students and professors by his genial manners, ready wit, overflowing humor, ripe scholarship and modest deportment.
During the war the college duties were suspended, and at its close he was appointed by the trustees first to carry on a school as a nucleus for the college, and afterward president pro tern., refusing to accept the positionpermanently until it became evident that no other man could fill it to the satisfaction of the friends of the college in the trying circumstances which surrounded the institution at that time — possessing the entire confidence of those living in the immediate vicinity of the college, where, of course, the first movement must be made to inspire new life into the almost extinct remains of what had once been the pride of the old residents in the Southern country. Beginning with one assistant and one pupil in the fall of 1865, by the summer of the following year he had added three additional professors, and the number of students had increased to forty-five. He felt then that the time had come for establishing a first-class college, and on his recommendation the board of trustees appointed a full corps of professors, and in one year from the organization of the college nearly one hundred students had enrolled, and the evidences of steady progress and success were equal to the expectations of the most sanguine. This success was only secured by unremitting devotion to his many duties, and the exposures incident thereto it is thought brought on him a general debility of his system, terminating in death at his residence, Oakland College, Miss., Feb. 14, 1867, of congestive chills.
He married in November, 1858, Miss Carrie Crenchaw [sic: Crenshaw], of Eutaw, Ala., who, with three children, survives him.
James Woodrow, D.D., editor of The Southern Presbyterian, Columbia, S. C. writes:
" The Church has sustained a severe loss in the removal of this valued brother. Endowed by nature with superior talents, he had cultivated them with unremitting assiduity. In scholarship, learning and sound judgment be had few equals in our whole land. He was eminently fitted for the position to which he was appointed a few months ago as president of Oakland College. His retiring modesty would have made him prefer a less conspicuous position, but such were his talents that they could not remain bid. Combining gentleness and loveliness of disposition, purity of heart and life, and unflinching firmness in the discharge of duty, with his superior intellectual character and his rare scholarship, no one could know him without loving, respecting and admiring him."
Henry Martyn Smith, D.D., of New Orleans, La., writes :
" Dr. Calvin was comparatively a young man, but one who had won for himself, in the hearts and minds of those who knew him, a place seldom occupied by men who have attained a longer life. It is not often we find a man so thoroughly at home in scholastic pursuits, who had at the same time such ability and admirable tact and prudence in dealing with men. But in this he was doubtless greatly aided by that magnetic influence which a pure, noble and unselfish nature exerts over us. Dr. Calvin, in the position he occupied at the time of his death, was rapidly rising to eminence. To a most gratifying degree he possessed the confidence of the community, the affection and respect of the students, and the esteem and approval of Synod. Under his direction, in a surprisingly short time, the college was more than recuperating its losses ; and those who knew him and his associates there confidently cherished for it hopes not second to the highest. At any time such a loss would be deeply and widely felt ; at the present juncture it is particularly severe, not only for his bereaved family and friends, the Synod, the college and the Church, but for the whole of the South-west ; and during his lifetime we never doubted that a time would come when the interests of education throughout this whole section of country would reap the benefits of his wisdom, goodness and experience."
R. B. White, D.D., of Gainesville, Va., writes thus :
" It is difficult for the hand of friendship to delineate with perfect fidelity the character of one greatly beloved ; there is a disposition, often unconscious, to soften its asperities and to exaggerate its virtues. Friendships are, however,sometimes based on the real merits of the object of affection, and are not the result of any accidental circumstances ; and in such cases the language of friendship is the language of truth. It often happens that men are superior to their reputation, because they have acted on no public arena, or because the arena on which they have acted has been circumscribed, or because they have been removed from even a conspicuous place too soon for the full display of their excellence. Joseph H. Calvin, whom the writer of this sketch admired only because he deserved to be admired, and praises only because he deserves to be praised, was just beginning to be widely known when God took him. It is the testimony of all who Knew him that he was a superior man, that he was greatly useful, and that he gave promise of far more extended usefulness than he had yet achieved.
" His intellectual character was in many respects superior. His mind was thoroughly disciplined by study and richly stored with knowledge. He was a ripe classical scholar — classical literature seems to have been his specialty. He was also well instructed in mathematics. His metaphysical reading had been large and varied — there were few metaphysical questions which he had not profoundly studied. He had ranged too over the fields of history, and had made himself familiar with most of the good poetry in the English language. At college he was recognized as the first scholar in his class. As a theologian, he embraced the truth, was even severely orthodox, and had studied well the doctrines not only of his own Church, but of other churches — their history and the arguments by which they are supported. Calvin's mind was chiefly distinguished by its analytical power ; he was able to penetrate to the depths of his subject and his reasoning was usually clear and convincing. Although not remarkable for the vigor of his imagination, he was enabled by his familiarity with literature to appropriate all the imagery that was necessary to render his discourses interesting, and to illustrate any subject which he chose to discuss. He proved himself, especially in the latter years of his life, a man of executive ability ; at all times indeed he was attentive to the details of business and wise in the management of them. He was an excellent judge of human character, so much so that he rarely failed to form a just estimate of any man with whom he became acquainted. His knowledge of men seems to have been instinctive; but it doubtless resulted in part from that independence of mind which prevented him from being swayed in his decisions by the representations of friends or overborne by public sentiment.
" A man's manners are not regarded as entering into the essence of his character ; they often are the result mainly of education and association, yet they may be regarded as indicating to a degree a man's intellectual and moral qualities. A full and correct portraiture of a man includes a description of his manners. Dr. Calvin was not distinguished by any remarkable gracefulness of bearing, although in this respect he was not defective. A man of genuine refinement, his manners were, however, remarkably refined. There is no society in the world in which he would not have been recognized as a gentleman. His propriety never forsook him. The noble moral qualities which distinguished him always shone out; his kindness won the sympathy of every heart ; his noble sentiments, his amiable disposition, his extensive knowledge, the brilliant wit which he had brought with him from his native isle, made him one of the most delightful companions that ever adorned a social circle. Yet he never fawned, was never frivolous, and always maintained the dignity which became a Christian minister. In youth he received that reverence in society which is usually conceded only to age. Always considerate and courteous, he was as welcome in the cabins of the poor as the parlors of the cultivated.
" Dr. Calvin was a man of lofty moral character, a man of sincere and earnest piety. He was a pure man ; his abhorrence of sin as an offence against God was conspicuous in all his demeanor. He seemed greatly free from envy. He was a man of genuine magnanimity ; his mind was too much employed about things of importance to permit him to give much attention to things that pertained only to himself.
" His affections were warm, his heart tender and sympathizing, and on this account he was so much endeared to his friends. He was willing to put himself to great inconvenience, as the writer knows, to aid a sick and suffering brother. He was a cheerful man ; his cheerfulness arose, doubtless, partly from his physical constitution, partly from the nice balance of his intellect and affections, principally from his trust in God, a clear conscience, a strong faith, a taste for the beauties of nature, domestic affection, a love for scientific investigations, communion with God, a determination to pursue the right, a benevolent and social disposition, and diligence in the performance of his allotted duties. All these combined produced their natural effect — they rendered him a happy man.
" As a preacher, Dr. Calvin was able, instructive and interesting, rather than brilliant Influenced by a false idea as to the necessity of amplification, his style was sometimes too diffuse. For his office of president of a college he was eminently fitted by his learning, his logical ability, his administrative talents, his industry, his kind and polite demeanor, the weight of his moral character and his earnest, active piety. "
Joseph B. Stratton, D.D., of Natchez, Miss., writes: "The character of this gifted brother presented a rare combination of fine, natural endowments, trained and furnished by thorough culture, with remarkable simplicity and guilelessness. He had made his way from the obscurity of a young, unknown scholar — the native of a foreign land — to very considerable eminence by the mere force of personal merit. His elevation was acquired without any seeking or management of his own, and in the face of certain disadvantages which a manner at first view unprepossessing threw in the way of his advancement. His honesty and singleness of mind were so patent that he never failed to attract to himself the confidence of those with whom he was associated ; and, upon the basis of the relations established by this, the resources of his erudition, the vigor and versatility of his intellect, and the depths of pathos and the sparkle of good-humor and wit which belonged to him as an Irishman, were encouraged to show themselves, and invariably won for him the respect and affection of his acquaintances. He loved truth intensely, and for its own sake, and apprehended it, in its various forms and distinctions, with unusual perspicacity. He was, as a consequence, an instructive preacher, though not an eloquent one, and was recognized in the courts of the Church as one of its most sagacious councilors. He had been a student, in the proper sense of the term, all his life, and had attained a compass and ripeness of scholarship not often reached by men of his age. He had gained for himself the reputation of being one of the most finished masters of the Greek language ana literature who nave been called to occupy a chair in any of the institutions of the South.
" His disinterestedness was carried almost to a fault, although it was perhaps the legitimate expression of that child-like trust in God which distinguished him.
" At the time of his death he had grown to that point of efficiency and popularity which seemed to indicate that he was the instrument appointed by God to resuscitate the institution with which he had been for some years enthusiastically identified, and over which he had just been called to preside. His removal at such a time is an anomaly in Providence over which his friends stand mute. They cannot doubt that for him it is a step onward in development and upward to higher fields of service ; but the withdrawal of his amiable presence, his wealth of learning and the purity and generousness of his example is felt to be a loss to them which will not soon be repaired."
Rev. Robert Price, of Port Gibson, Miss., writes as follows:
"The impression which Dr. Calvin made upon the minds of those who knew him was that he possessed an exceedingly amiable disposition by nature, which was still further improved and elevated by religion. His was one of those happy characters which make many warm and admiring friends, but seldom made an enemy. His popularity was consequently very great where he was known, and greatest where he was known best. The feelings with which he was regarded by his pupils were those of love as well as admiration. This universal popularity, however, was not maintained by the sacrifice of principle, for no man could be more firm and unyielding than he when convinced that any great principle was involved. His habits were rather retiring, and his manners not graceful nor calculated to make a very agreeable impression upon strangers except by their perfect freedom from affectation, but his intercourse with his friends was very affectionate, and in a circle where he was encouraged to unbend, his conversation was characterized by a wit, humor and sense which were irresistibly charming. His religious character was remarkably pure, deep and lovely, resembling that of Melancthon rather than that of Luther.
" His intellect was of a very high order, quick, fertile and inventive, and yet capable of prolonged and laborious investigation. He had received in his boyhood in Ireland an excellent education — much better indeed than boys often get in this country ; and as his habits were studious all through life, his judgment discriminating and his memory singularly retentive, he had made rare attainments in learning at the time of his death. His forte lay in the acquisition of languages. He was a proficient in the Latin and the Greek, which he had taught with great success for a number of years. He also understood the Hebrew, the French and the German. But his acquirements were by no means confined to a single field. There was hardly any branch of learning commonly cultivated by scholars with which he did not have some acquaintance. His professional learning was thorough, especially in the department of biblical interpretation, where his unusual familiarity with the original languages of the Scripture was made to contribute with rare skill and success to its explanation.
"As a preacher he was distinguished by the solidity and fullness of his matter, by an agreeable style, and, when he spoke without his manuscript, by the animation of his manner. In the early part of his ministry he seems to have confined himself closely to his manuscript. But he was not a good reader, and he afterward very properly concluded that an extemporaneous mode of address greatly increased the effectiveness of his preaching. His sermons were eminently scriptural in their tone and sentiment, and were generally drawn not merely from the Scriptures at large, but from the text and context in which he found his subject. He had not been long in the presidency of the college to demonstrate his peculiar fitness for that position, but his scholarship, zeal, enthusiasm and energy, as well as his happy faculty of making friends, both among his pupils and the community at large, led the patrons of the institution to hope that he would be eminently successful in repairing its shattered fortunes. Soon after his death the board of trustees of the college met and passed a series of resolutions expressive of their respect for his memory and their grief at his loss. Similar resolutions were adopted by the faculty over which he had presided, and by the Presbytery of which he had been a beloved and honored member. "
Rev. Richmond Mclnnis, of Forest, Miss., writes thus:
"To sum up Dr. Calvin's character in a few words, we would say that true, earnest piety was the characteristic of his thoughts, words and actions, to which was added an enthusiastic devotion to all that was true in science, that was exalting in intellectual pursuits, to all that was genuine in the inner life ; a generous, social nature, warm heart and tender sympathy for all that was worthy ; a high purpose to work in bis day to the extent of his powers in accomplishing something for the advancement of his fellow-men, and an unsuspecting confidence in his friends ; an abiding trust in Providence and an untiring zeal in the service of his God.
"He was a true friend, an earnest Christian, a ripe scholar, a strong, faithful preacher — not eloquent, but always pointed and full of unction."
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Rev. Joseph Hadden Calvin's grave is unmarked.
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