American clergyman and editor; born in Ballston, NY, on the 4th of November 1812. He was a graduate of Williams in the class of 1829. He entered the Presbyterian ministry in 1833, but was obliged to give up pastoral work on account of his health, in 1840. From that time until his death he was editorially connected with the New York Observer, and traveled in Europe, contributing to the Observer his famous Irenæus’s Letters. He was also a regular contributor to Harper’s Magazine, and was officially connected with Wells College and Williams and a large number of benevolent societies. He published numerous books descriptive of his travels and on religious subjects. Among his works are The Old White Meeting-House (1845); Travels in Europe and the East (1855); Power of Prayer (1858); and Irenæus’s Letters (1880–85). He died in Manchester, VT, July 18, 1885.—His brother, Nathaniel Scudder, a Presbyterian clergyman; born in Huntington, Long Island, on the 21st of April 1785. After his graduation at Princeton he was ordained a minister in 1805. He was afterward pastor of churches in Long Island, and at Cambridge and Newburg, NY. He was the author of A Collection of Hymns (1809); A History of Long Island (1845); and other works. He died in Mamaroneck, NY, on the 27th of March 1856.—His brother, Edward Dorr Griffin, also a Presbyterian clergyman; born in Cambridge, NY, on the 2nd of November 1814. He was graduated at Union College in 1832, and from 1838 to 1853 was pastor of churches in Scotchtown, NY, and New York City. He edited the New York Observer, during his brother Irenæus’s absence in Europe. He wrote for the paper under the name “Eusebius,” and continued with it until 1886, when ill-health compelled him to give up work. He wrote Around the World (1872); and Forty Years in the Turkish Empire (1876). He died in New York on the 7th of April 1891.—Another brother, William Cowper, a journalist; born in Cambridge, NY, on the 31st of October 1825. After his graduation at Princeton in 1843, he studied law and was admitted to the bar of New York in 1846. In 1861 he became editor of the Journal of Commerce, and was actively engaged in editorial work until 1869. From that time on he devoted his time to the study of art, and in 1884 was appointed professor of art history in Princeton. He traveled extensively and published a number of works, among which are The Owl-Creek Letters (1848); Boat Lift in Egypt and Nubia (1857); I Go a-Fishing (1873); and edited McClellan’s Own Story (1886). He died in 1905. See also “The Defeat of the Christian Host at Galilee, A.D. 1187” and “A New England Auction: The Lonely Church in the Valley.”
