OBITUAEIES, UNITED STATES. 



653 



when it was made a city, and, in connection 

 with Mr. Law, established the present ferries. 

 "When the war broke out, Dr. Berry, in 1861, 

 .although over sixty years of age, fired by 

 that enthusiasm which ran through the coun- 

 try like an electric shock, left his home to 

 act as surgeon of the 38th New York regi- 

 ment. When Gen. George B. McClellan took 

 up his march for Harrison's Landing, the 

 patients in charge of the doctor over three 

 hundred in number were forgotten at their 

 hospital, near the White House. The army had 

 departed before he could commence to move, 

 but he not only carried the sick and convales- 

 cent safely through six days' battles to tho 

 James River, but his train numbered over eight 

 hundred sick and wounded men when he reach- 

 ed the Landing. His death was the result of a 

 fever contracted at that period. 



Oct. 22. D WIGHT, WILLIAM THEODORE, a 

 Congregational clergyman and author, born in 

 Greenfield, Conn., June 15, 1795, died in An- 

 dover, Mass., Oct. 22, 1865. He was the sev- 

 enth son and child of President Timothy and 

 Mary (Woolsey) Dwight. The year of his birth, 

 his distinguished father was inaugurated Presi- 

 dent of Yale College, and moved his family to 

 New Haven. After spending some months in 

 a classical school at youth Farms, Litchfield, 

 Conn., and also at Fairfield, young Dwight was 

 admitted, at the early age of twelve, to the 

 Freshman class in Yale College. Owing to his 

 youth, it was not thought advisable that he 

 should at once go on with his class, and two 

 years were passed in general studies. He grad- 

 uated in 1813, having maintained throughout 

 a highly honorable position in his class. From 

 1817 to 1819 he served as tutor in the college. 

 In 1818 his father's celebrated Theological Dis- 

 courses were published, with a Memoir, in five 

 vols. A large part of the labor of preparing 

 this edition for the press was performed by Mr. 

 Dwight. In the fall of 1819 he entered on the 

 study of law, in the office of Charles Chauncey, 

 Esq., of Philadelphia, Penn., and in the spring 

 of 1821 he was admitted to the bar. His pow- 

 ers were admirably adapted to the profession 

 thus chosen, and he pursued it with interest 

 and success. Laying a broad and deep founda- 

 tion by careful study of the principles of law, 

 and acquiring, with the aid of a remarkably 

 retentive memory, a large share of the learning 

 of his profession, at the close of nearly ten years 

 of practice he found success waiting on his en- 

 deavors, and the path to eminence in his calling 

 fairly open. At this time, however, his con- 

 victions of duty underwent an entire change, 

 consequent, as he believed, upon the renewal 

 of his character through the truths of the Gos- 

 pel. Though never questioning the compati- 

 bility of an earnest devotion to the duties of the 

 legal profession with a thoroughly religious 

 character, he found that the chief affection and 

 interest of his mind centred in another work. 

 Uniting with the Fifth Presbyterian Church, 

 then under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Skiu- 



ner, he devoted himself to the work of prepa- 

 ration for the Christian ministry. Under his 

 father's training and in editing his Sermons, 

 Mr. Dwight had already made large attainments 

 in the study of Divinity, and in a few months 

 he was approved as a minister by a presbytery 

 in New York city. After receiving several 

 calls to settle, he finally accepted that of the 

 Third Congregational Church in Portland, Me., 

 and was ordained and installed June 6, 1832. 

 After a ministry of nearly thirty-two years to 

 that people, in consequence of declining health 

 he resigned his charge in May 1864, and re- 

 moved to Andover, Mass., where ho died in 

 October, 1865. For many years previous to his 

 decease Dr. Dwight had been widely known as 

 one of the most prominent and influential of 

 the Congregational clergy. His intellectual 

 vigor, especially a rare power of unravelling an 

 intricate theme, of disentangling the main ques- 

 tion from amass of irrelevant matter, combined 

 with his forensic experience, and a manner 

 marked by ease, dignity, and decision, made 

 him a leading member of deliberative bodies 

 and an admirable presiding officer. Besides 

 very frequent service as Moderator of Ecclesi- 

 astical Councils, some of them of much import- 

 ance in the history of the Congregational De- 

 nomination, as e. g. the Council held in New 

 York city, in connection with Rev. Dr. Chee- 

 ver's Church, Dr. Dwight was a member of 

 the Board of Overseers of Bowdoin College, a 

 Corporate Member of the A. B. C. F. M., Pres- 

 ident of the Portland Benevolent Society, Pres- 

 ident of the Maine Missionary Society, Presi- 

 dent of the Congregational Library Association. 

 President of the Board of Visitors of Andover 

 Theological Seminary, and President of the Al- 

 bany Convention of Congregational Churches. 

 As a preacher, he excelled in the treatment of 

 the most commanding themes. He dwelt chiefly 

 on the central facts and disclosures of the Scrip- 

 tures, the character of God, the soul, redemp- 

 tion, heaven, hell. He spoke of what to him 

 were the great realities. The strength and 

 clearness of his mind were accompanied by an 

 equal power of sensibility. Under the influence 

 of deep thought and emotion, he often rose to a 

 high degree of noble eloquence. His counte- 

 nance was open and expressive, his manner 

 always earnest, often highly impressive, and 

 not seldom naturally and spontaneously dra- 

 matic. He possessed remarkable power in ex- 

 temporaneous address when questions involving 

 great ethical principles and human interests 

 were under discussion. He had a profound and 

 instinctive abhorrence of all that was false, or 

 unjust, or low. His resignation of his charge 

 called forth many expressions of respect and 

 affection from the community in which his min- 

 isterial life had chiefly been passed. One of 

 the most noticeable of these was an address 

 drawn up by Hon. William Willis, an<l signed 

 by many of the leading citizens of Portland, of 

 various professions, callings, and religious de- 

 nominations, replete with testimony to the pub- 



