The Rev. Dr. Charles Henry Parkhurst was born in Framingham,
Massachusetts, April 17, 1842. His father worked on a farm in summer
and taught school in winter. Until sixteen years of age Charles was a
pupil of the Clinton (Mass.) grammar school. The two years following
he acted as clerk in a dry goods store. At the age of eighteen he
began to prepare for college at Lancaster academy. At the end of the
course there, he went to Amherst, from whence he graduated in 1866.
The following year he became principal of the Amherst high school,
remaining there until 1870, when he visited Germany. On his return he
became professor of Greek and Latin in Williston seminary, holding
that position for two years, during which period he married a Miss
Bodman, a pupil of his while a teacher at Amherst. Accompanied by
his wife, he next made a trip to Europe to study at Halle, Leipzig,
and Bonn. Again in this country he received a call to the pastorate
of the First Congregational church in Lenox, Massachusetts, where he
soon gained a reputation as an original and forceful pulpit orator.
On March 9, 1880, he became pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian
church, New York city, the call being the outcome of his work at Lenox.
He immediately began to take a lively interest in city and national
politics, and one of his sermons attracted the attention of Dr. Howard
Crosby, president of the society for the prevention of crime, in which
society Dr. Parkhurst was invited to become a director. A few months
later Dr. Crosby died and Dr. Parkhurst was chosen as his successor.
Dr. Parkhurst has done more for reform in New York city than any other
single individual. His courageous course in connection with the Lexow
investigation of certain phases of life in New York will not be readily
forgotten.