Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – President of Columbian College – Pastor George Whitefield Samson -Part Four of SIX

Thomas E Kresal January 8, 2020

Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – President of Columbian College

Pastor George Whitefield Samson Part Four

Returning to Washington, he remained with the E Street church from 1848 to 1850, when he became, for two years, the successor of Dr. Hague at Jamaica Plain, Mass.

Returning again to Washington, he continued pastor of the church for eight years, having among his regular hearers Amos Kendall, Sam Houston, W L. Marcy, Thos. Corwin, W A. Graham, Duff Green, Stephen A. Douglas, and other prominent statesmen.

In 1858 he was elected president of the Columbian College, Washington, D. C, and within two years the number of students was considerably increased, many donations were made, and the legacies of Prof. R. Elton, D.D., John Withers, and James McCutchen given.

At the opening of the war the main college edifice was rented to the government as a hospital, and it was the only building thus occupied for which a written lease was given. Prior to the war, as early as 1845, when the Southern Baptist Convention was formed, the E Street church, at the suggestion of the pastor, voted that in missionary collections all who chose might designate their contributions, while undesignated funds should be equally divided between the North and the South.

Thomas E. Kresal from: The Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart, pg. 361.