Cowles, Henry, 1803-1881

Henry Cowles was born in Norfolk, Connecticut in 1803. He graduated from Yale College in 1826 and from Yale's Theological Department in 1828. The same year, he was ordained to the Congregational ministry. From 1828 to 1835, Cowles held pastorates in Ohio as a missionary for the Connecticut Home Missionary Society. He came to Oberlin as Professor of Languages in 1835 and in 1837 was appointed Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Pastoral Theology. In 1840, he became Professor of the Literature of the Old Testament. From 1844 to 1848, he worked part-time as editor of the Oberlin Evangelist, assuming full-time duties in 1848. He served as editor until 1862 when the paper closed down. During the final twenty years of his life, Cowles produced sixteen volumes of biblical commentary. He died in 1881.