CLASS OF 1845
Richard Salter Storrs, D. D., L.L.D.
[Again the press is stopped to make brief record of another distinguished alumnus, whose death has occurred since his words used above were copied.]
Son of Rev. Richard Salter Storrs, D. D. (Class of 1810), and Harriet Moore; born in Braintree, Mass., August 21, 1821; fitted for college under the tuition of his father, and at Monson (Mass.) Academy, 1834-35; graduated at Amherst College, 1839, his part at Commencement being a Dissertation on "Materials for Poetry in Hebrew History." He taught in Monson Academy, as assistant to Rev. Charles Hammond (Class of 1844), from September, 1839, to November, 1840, and then spent several months in the study of law in the office of Rufus Choate. Although not then a professor of religion, he dared not refuse to preach the gospel, and entered this Seminary in 1841; suspended his studies for a part of two years and taught Mental and Moral Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Chemistry at Williston Seminary; then returned and graduated September 3, 1845, the subject of his Commencement address being, " The Prelatic and the Congregational Theories of the Church — their Appeals to the Imagination." (The "Parting Hymn," by James M. Hoppin, was sung to music composed by Daniel L. Furber, whose obituary record is contained in this Necrology.) He was licensed by the Norfolk Association, meeting with Rev. Willard Pierce, No. Abington, Jan. 28, 1845, and ordained pastor of Harvard Church, Brookline, Mass., October 22, 1845, the sermon being preached by Dr. Storrs of Braintree (from the text, "Thou, therefore, my son, be strong"), the ordaining prayer offered by Dr. Kirk, and the charge given by Dr. Codman. November 19,1846, he was installed pastor of the Church of the Pilgrims, in Brooklyn, N. Y., the pioneer Congregational church in that city, and continued in that office for fiftythree years, being made pastor emeritus in November, 1899.
Union College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1853, and Harvard College in 1859; tne College of New Jersey gave the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1874. He was one of the founders of the Long Island Historical Society, and its president from 1873, a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and many other learned societies. His contributions to literature, largely in the form of lectures and orations, have been many and choice, including The Constitution of the Human Soul, 1857; Conditions of Success in preaching without notes, 1875; Recognition of the Supernatural in letters and in life, 1881; The D1vine Origin of Christianity indicated by its historical effects (before Lowell Institute), 1884; Bernard of Ctairvaux, the times, the man, and his work, an historical study, 1892; and many commemorative and historical orations. His last publication and his last work was his compilation of Addresses on Foreign Missions, delivered at annual meetings of the American Board, of which he had been a corporate member since 1863, and president, 1887-97. This volume includes his last great sermon on The Permanent Motive in Missionary Work, delivered before the International Council in Boston in 1899. He was one of the founders of the Independent in 1848, and a trustee of Amherst College from 1863 to 1899.
Dr. Storrs was of remarkable ancestry. His father, Richard Salter Storrs of Andover (Class of 1810, the first class graduated from Andover Seminary), was minister in Braintree sixty-two years; his grandfather, Richard Salter Storrs, was pastor in Longmeadow thirty-four years — an aggregate service, including the pastorates of the third bearing the name, of over one hundred and fifty years, besides the pastorate of Rev. John Storrs, of Mansfield, Ct., his great-grandfather.
Dr. Storrs's love for his theological alma mater is shown by this extract from a letter written to one of the officers of the Alumni Association: "Since the Semi-Centennial Anniversary in 1858, I have almost never been in Andover — never, if I remember, on any errand to the Seminary — but my interest in the Institution has continued, and my happy recollections of my own life there, between 1840 and 1845, are as vivid today as when I had just left the 'Hill' where we learned the principles of theology and saw the splendor of the sunset."
It is a very singular and touching coincidence that the distinguished master and the distinguished pupil, whose lives had been interwoven at Braintree, at Amherst, at Andover, and in many years of high friendship and fellowship in the ministry, should have passed away on successive days, and that they should be buried at the same hour, the funeral eulogy of Professor Park, prepared by Dr. Storrs, being now on its way from Brooklyn to Andover for use in that service, although it will be read by another's voice.
The Jubilee anniversary of the Brooklyn pastorate in 1896 brought out, through its week of ovations and tributes, Dr. Storrs's splendid record as preacher, orator, scholar, historian, and his matchless service, not to the Church of the Pilgrims alone, but to the Church universal, to the city of his home, to civic righteousness, to Christian missions, and to every cause calculated "to further the Interests of Mankind." His "Golden Jubilee Sermon " ended with characteristic words that have deep meaning now: "Our years of common service in the future cannot be many. But may they be filled, and more than ever, with the revelation to us, and in us, of that immense and radiant discovery of the life celestial made by the Master .... that at last, we may step one by one, as death sets us free, over the threshold of the City of God, upon the shining streets beyond, and see our immortal Redeemer and King, crowned and resplendent, face to face."
Dr. Storrs married, October 1, 1845, Mary Elwell Jenks, of Andover, daughter of Francis Jenks and Sarah Hurd Phillips (daughter of Hon. John Phillips, first mayor of Boston, and sister of Wendell Phillips), of Boston. She died January 7, 1898. One daughter died in childhood. Three daughters survive, the wife of the late Prof. Lewis R. Packard, of Yale College; the wife of Rev. Dr. Edward Coe, of New York, and the wife of the late Rev. Philip Washburn, of Colorado Springs, Col.
Dr. Storrs died of old age in Brooklyn, N. Y., June 5, 1900, aged seventy-eight years, nine months, and fifteen days.
Andover, June 6, 1900.
Source: Necrology: Andover Theological Seminary, Volume 18880, Issue 1900, by Andover Theological Seminary & Andover Theological Seminary Alumni Association, 1900; Pgs. 443-444
