Tarbox, Increase N. (Increase Niles), 1815-1888

Increase Niles Tarbox: born in South Windsor, Ct., February 11, 1815; B.A., Yale, 1839; studied at the Yale Divinity School; ordained in 1844; pastor of the Hollis Evangelical Church of Framingham, Mass., 1844-1851; co-edited The Congregationalist, 1849-1851; withdrew from ministry and editing to became secretary of American Education Society; retired in 1884; author of many articles, stories, and poems. Tarbox died on May 3, 1888.

Increase N. Tarbox was a well known historian, pastor, and educator of the mid to late 19th century.

Increase Niles Tarbox: B.A., Yale, 1839; studied at the Yale Divinity School; ordained in 1844; pastor of the Hollis Evangelical Church of Framingham, Mass., 1844-1851; co-edited The Congregationalist, 1849-1851; withdrew from ministry and editing to became secretary of American Education Society; retired in 1884; author of many articles, stories, and poems.

Increase Niles Tarbox was born in that part of East Windsor which is now South Windsor, Conn., February 11, 1815, the son of Thomas and Lucy (Porter) Tarbox; being left an orphan when nine years old he was obliged to secure an education by his own efforts.

For two years after graduation he had charge of an academy in East Hartford, Conn. He then returned to New Haven and entered the Divinity School, being also occupied during the second and third years of his course there with the duties of a tutor in college. In the summer of 1844 he began to preach in Framingham, Mass., where he was ordained pastor of the Hollis Evangelical Church on November 22. In May, 1849, while still holding this pastorate, he was one of three editors who issued the first number of the religious newspaper, since widely known as The Congregationalist . In July, 1851, he resigned his pastorate and withdrew from editorial work, to accept the position of Secretary of the American Education Society, which he held with distinguished usefulness until his resignation on account of advancing age in August, 1884. His office during these years was in Boston, and his residence was removed to West Newton in 1860. He was a frequent contributor to periodical literature, both in prose and verse, and besides a number of minor works for juvenile readers published in 1876 a Life of Israel Putnam (389 pp., 8vo), which illustrates his keen interest in New England history. In his later years he had great pleasure in editing with full notes the privately printed Diary of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Robbins (Yale 1796), in two thick royal octavo volumes. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by this college in 1869.

In January, 1888, he went to North Carolina for the benefit of his health, and while there was seriously ill from pneumonia. He rallied so as to return home, arriving there at the end of April. Four days later, on May 3, he felt well enough to go to Boston, but died of exhaustion in about an hour after his return home.

He was married, June 4, 1845, to Miss Delia A. Waters, daughter of Asa Waters, of Millbury, Mass., who died in 1885. Of their four children two daughters are still living.

Taken from Yale College Obituary Record, 1880-90, pp. 441-442.