Trumbull, H. Clay (Henry Clay), 1830-1903

Henry Clay Trumbull (1830-1903) was a noted author, editor, and Sunday-school missionary.

From the description of Henry Clay Trumbull correspondence, 1844-1892 (bulk 1851-1865). (University of Delaware Library). WorldCat record id: 663905425

Henry Clay Trumbull (1830–1903) was a noted author, editor, and Sunday-school missionary.

Henry Clay Trumbull was born in 1830 in Stonington, Connecticut to a prominent family. His brother, James Hammond Trumbull, was a noted historian, philologist, and bibliographer. Trumbull attended Stonington Academy and Williston Seminary. He moved to Hartford, Connecticut, at age 21 and worked for the Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill Railroad as a clerk. In 1854, he married Alice Cogswell Gallaudet, the daughter of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet who was named in honor of Alice Cogswell, a daughter of Dr. Mason Cogswell and first deaf pupil of Gallaudet’s.

In 1852, Trumbull joined the church and became the superintendent of a mission Sunday-school, continuing to work at the railroad. After working at several different jobs, in 1858 he became the state Sunday-school missionary for Connecticut. Trumbull was ordained in 1862 and became the chaplain of the 10th Connecticut Regiment, stationed in North Carolina. He was held by the Confederates for four months in 1863, and after his release served in Virginia until his discharge in August 1865.

He then became New England secretary for the American Sunday-school Union. In 1875, he and his family moved to Philadelphia where he became editor of the Sunday School Times. Trumbull was the Lyman Beecher Lecturer at Yale Divinity School in 1888. During his life, Trumbull wrote thirty-three books, including Kadesh-Barnea, about a historic site he identified in Palestine, and The Knightly Soldier, a biography of his friend Henry Ward Camp.

Malone, Dumas (ed.). Dictionary of American Biography. Volume 10. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964. pp. 8-9. [text]

From the guide to the Henry Clay Trumbull correspondence, 1844–1892, 1851–1865, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)