|
EBEN HALLEY was born in Salem, Washington County, New York, January 7, 1845.
He was the son of the Rev. Ebenezer Halley, D.D., and his wife, Eliza Moore. During his
college days his family resided in Albany, New York, and Halley was prepared for college
at Albany Academy. He joined our Class in the autumn f 1860, and remained with us till
sometime in the winter of early spring of 1863, when a strong sense of duty toward his
imperiled country led him to enlist. He spent something less than a year in the army, then
returned to college and completed his curse with the Class of 1864. While in college with
our Class, Halley joined the Kappa Alpha fraternity. He took part in the Prize Rhetorical
exhibition, August 6, 1861, and the Adelphic Union Public Debates, February and October,
1862, being a member of the 'Technian Literary Society.
After graduation in 1864, Halley studied theology at Princeton Theological Seminary
and during his seminary course served the Vermont Missionary Society in vacations and
portions of seminary year as home missionary at Richmond, not far from Burlington,
Vermont. So acceptable were his labors with this people that he was strongly urged to
return to this small and needy parish after the completion of his studies. He yielded to
these urgent solicitations and returned to Richmond for a longer stay. His residence in
Vermont, however, was short, for in December, 1869, he was ordained and installed over
a Congregational church in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained till he received and
accepted a call to a Congregational church in Binghamton, New York, in the autumn of
1877. Shortly after his settlement in this new parish, May 1, 1878, our classmate married
Miss Henrietta Burt, daughter of Andrew Gano Burt and his wife, Ann Greene, of Cincinnati. After a well appreciated pastorate of nine years in Binghamton, in November,
1886, Mr. Halley accepted a call to the Second Street Presbyterian Church in Troy, New
York, and remained with this people till his death, June 8, 1895, in the fifty-first year of his
age.
Halley was an inspiring preacher and a man of broad sympathies, bound down by no
hard and fast lines of creed or denomination; at the same time he was not vague or
iconoclastic in his views of religious truth, or in his methods of teaching and of organizing
Christian activities. He sought the substance beneath the surface, the kernel within the
shell; and that was the vital element with him. One quotes this saying of Halley's in
connection with a discussion about the place of creeds in the Christian system. "Theology
is the fallible interpretation of infallible truth." Another speaks of his "intense sense of the
ethical element in life. I remember how indignant it used to make him to hear people speak
of mere morality'; he could not endure even the appearance of a separation between the
evangelical motives of Christianity and practical righteousness." It was this intense vitality
of his conceptions of Christian truth, coupled with an enthusiasm of youth that ran onward
into the serious and earnest life of manhood, that characterized Halley's public life and
made him a man much beloved by those who knew him well. Then there was in him a
strong interest in the daily ongoings of life. He could not keep away from affairs in town,
city, state or nation. With a just and wise discrimination, at the right time and place, he was
ready to speak the inspiring word and to give the rousing impulse toward improved civic
conditions. This trait was strikingly illustrated in Halley's part in the struggles against the
corrupt and riotous forces in Troy's city government. One wrote of Troy's loss by Halley's
death: "The cause of good government and of humanity in that city loses a powerful
advocate, and the religious denomination to which he belonged is robbed of a strong
personality, always ranged on the side of manliness, of freedom, and the progress that goes
with freedom. Eben Halley was sweet and true and human, and had a quick sense of
humor, was a delightful story-teller, and his deep, infectious laugh that shook his big frame
was mighty pleasant to hear. His fine courtesy of manner was the natural garb of a nature
so transparently genuine that trust and love went out to meet him without reserve or fear,
and he had the sympathy to welcome and the strength to hold them ever after. The
Presbyterian Church has great need of such as he, and so has the world of struggling
humanity in all its aspects."
Mrs. Halley, who survives her husband, writes of his "interest and loyalty for
Williams, and, too, the ever present feeling that he never could too highly estimate the
benefit from the training under Dr. Mark Hopkins."
Our classmate had three children.
1. Lucy, born March 30, 1879, and died June 8, 1893. At the time of her death she
was a pupil in the Emma Willard School, Troy, New York.
2. Erskine Burt, born April 10, 1882. He was prepared for college at Albany
Academy, and entered Williams September, 1902.
3. Douglas Gano, born January 30, 1892.
Source:
Class of Sixty-Three Williams College Fortieth Year Report, by
the Class Historian, Thomas Todd Printer, Boston, 1903
Halley
Surname Genealogy Resources
|
