| Notes |
- "... the Rev. Selah Strong Woodhull, D.D.,[was] the only son of James Woodhull, a respectable merchant of New York, and Keturah, his wife, the daughter of Judge Selah Strong of Setauket. He was born in New York, August 4, 1786; lost his father by yellow fever, in 1798; graduated at Yale, in 1802; was licensed to preach by the presbytery of New Brunswick in 1805, was settled the same year at Boundbrook, N. J., and in 1806 assumed the sole charge of the Reformed Dutch church of Brooklyn. During his charge here, the trustees of this church secured its incorporation on the 18th of December, 1814, at which time the following gentlemen constituted the officiary of the church: Elders, Fernandus Suydam, Walter Berry, Jeremiah Johnson, John Lefferts. Deacons, Jeremiah Brower, Lambert Schenck, Abraham DeBevoise, Abraham Remsen. Mr. Woodhull was widely known for many years as the able and indefatigable secretary for the American Bible Society. In 1825, he removed to New Brunswick, having accepted the professorship of Ecclesiastical History, Church Government and Pastoral Theology, in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Dutch church, and of Metaphysics and the Philosophy of the Human Mind, in Rutger's College. From this post of usefulness, however, he was soon removed by death, February 27, 1826, in the fortieth year of his age."
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH XIX.
SELAH STRONG WOODHULL, (Rev.), sixth generation from Richard Wodhull I., Patentee of Brookhaven, Long Island, was the only son of James Woodhull and Keturah Strong. He was born August 4, 1786, in the city of New York, where his father was a merchant.
At the age of twelve he entered the Freshman Class of Columbia College, New York, but later, in 1798 entered Yale.
One of his classmates wrote of him:
"He was the youngest in the class, and hardly advanced enough to appreciate fully the value of thorough scholarship; still he appeared well in the recitation room, showed that he acquired his lessons easily, and possessed a mind capable of great acquisition.
"Had he been sixteen or eighteen when he entered College, he would probably have ranked among the very best scholars of the class."
He graduated in 1802 at the age of sixteen. Soon after, he began the study of Law in New York City, but during a visit to his uncle,
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the Rev. John Woodhull, D. D., of Freehold, New Jersey, his religious impressions became so deep that he felt impelled to relinquish the idea of becoming a lawyer and look toward the ministry as his life profession.
He studied theology under Dr. Woodhull and such was the remarkable precocity of his mind, that he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, New Jersey, in his nineteenth year (1805).
He settled at Bound Brook, New Jersey, for a year. In 1806 he was pastor of the First Reformed Dutch Church, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and the same year had conferred upon him the degree of D. D., from Yale College.
He was for many years the able and indefatigable Secretary of the American Bible Society.
In 1825, he resigned his Brooklyn pastorate, and also the Secretaryship of the Bible Society, to accept the Professorship of Ecclesiastical History, Church Government, and Pastoral Theology, in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Dutch Church at New Brunswick.
He was also Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy, and Philosophy of the Human Mind, in Rutgers College, New Brunswick.
He married, November 10, 1807, Cornelia Van Cleve, of Princeton, New Jersey.
His useful and promising career was ended by his death, February 27, 1826.
The funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Brownlee, a portion of which was published in the Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church for December, 1826.
It is remarkable that fifty-two sermons that had never been preached were found among his papers after his death.
He left a widow and five daughters.
(See Genealogy, No. 150.)
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1786 - 1826 (39 years)
[2] 