John Chester Backus (September 3, 1810 – April 8, 1884) was an American Presbyterian minister. Backus, son of Eleazer F. Backus, a retired wholesale bookseller, of Albany, N. Y., and of Elizabeth, daughter of Col.

John Chester John Chester is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker and television director. His recent short films for OWN's Super Soul Sunday (including ''Saving Emma'', ''Worry for Maggie'' and ''The Orphan'') have won five Emmy Awards, for outstanding directi ...

, of Wethersfield, Conn., was born in Wethersfield, September 3, 1810. He entered Columbia College in 1826, and removed to Yale College the latter part of Sophomore year, where he graduated in 1830. He studied law for one year at Yale Law School, but under convictions of duty then joined the Yale Divinity School, where he remained for part of a year. He also studied for part of a year at the Andover Theological Seminary, and afterwards removed to

Princeton Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of ...

, where he took the full three years' course In December, 1835, while employed as Assistant Secretary of the Board of Domestic Missions of the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

, he was ordained as an evangelist by the Presbytery of New Brunswick; and on April 11, 1836, he was called to the pastorate of the 1st Presbyterian Church in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

, Md. He accepted the call, and was installed September 15, 1836, and in this charge he continued until his death, although relieved in 1875 at his own request from active duty. In 1848 he received the degree of

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

from Hanover College, Indiana; and in 1875 that of Doctor of Laws from the College of New Jersey, of which he was a Trustee from 1860 to 1872. In 1861 he was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbytenan Church ( Old School). He died at his residence in Baltimore, after a few weeks' illness, April 8, 1884, in his 74th year. He married, June 2, 1840, Letitia C. Cooper, daughter of John C. Smith, of Philadelphia, who survived him with one daughter.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:backus, john chester 1810 births 1884 deaths People from Wethersfield, Connecticut Columbia College (New York) alumni Yale Law School alumni Yale Divinity School alumni Andover Newton Theological School alumni Princeton Theological Seminary alumni American Presbyterian ministers Yale College alumni 19th-century American clergy