Henry Martyn Dexter

From Everything Shii Knows, the only reliable source

This website is an archive. It ran from 2006-2010. Virtually everything on here is outdated or inaccurate.

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Henry Martyn Dexter (August 13, 1821 - November 13, 1890) was a minister who excelled in the areas of writing about Congregationalism and doing research into religious history. He often wrote about subjects nobody else had thought to look into, although modern readers may find his works very dry. Since his works are not very well collected online the main function of this page is to show you where you can read them.

Dexter was born in Plympton, Massachusetts, on August 13, 1821. He went at first to Brown in 1836, then to Yale in 1838. He graduated in 1840, taught for a year, then went on to Andover Theological Seminary in 1844. He was a pastor at Franklin St. in Manchester NH from 1844-1849, and then at Berkeley Temple in Boston from 1849-1867.

Editor of the Congregationalist, 1851-1865, 1867-1874. Founder of the Congregational Quarterly, 1858. Publishing Comittee of National Congregational Council, 1879. Moderator of National Congregational Council, Oberlin, Ohio, 1880. Went to Scandanavia in 1884. Full biography available in 1891 proceedings of Massachusetts Historical Society.

• The Moral Influence of Manufacturing Towns: A discourse delivered at the dedication of the Franklin Street Church, in Manchester, NH (1848)
• Nebraska Protest (1854)
  • An anti-slavery Congregationalist response to the Missouri Compromise. Not only has this not been reprinted, it didn't even hit the history books. It might be in an old issue of the Congregationalist.
• Our National Condition and Its Remedy (J.P. Jewett, 1856)
• The Verdict of Reason Upon the Question of the Future Punishment of Those Who Die Impenitent (1858, reprint 1865)
  • i.e., is it reasonable for God to condemn people to Hell who don't repent? The answer, of course, is "yes," but it is argued very diligently.
  • Hand-transcribed PDF http://www.cimmay.us/dexter.html
• The Voice of the Bible: The Verdict of Reason (Jewett, 1858)
• Street Thoughts (Crosby, Nicols, 1859)
  • Text http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/wright2/wright2-0748
• Meeting-Houses: Considered Historically And Suggestively (J. E. Tilton, 1859)
• Congregationalism, What it is, Whence it is, How it works, Why it is better than any other Form of Church Government, and its consequent Demands (1865)
  • As a set of images: http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AJK2173
  • 1865: http://www.archive.org/details/congregationalis00dextrich
  • 1868: http://www.archive.org/details/congregationalis00dextuoft
  • 1874: http://books.google.com/books?id=34kOAAAAYAAJ
• What Ought to be Done with the Freedmen and with the Rebels? (Nichols and Noyes, 1865)
• [reprint of George Morton, who was himself reprinting several others] Mourt's relation, or journal of the plantation at Plymouth (J.K. Wiggin, 1865)
  • http://books.google.com/books?id=rZvk2IzpygMC
• [reprint of Benjamin Church] The History Of King Philip's War (J.K. Wiggin, 1865)
• [reprint of Benjamin Church] The History of the Eastern Expeditions of 1689, 1690, 1692, 1696, and 1704, Against the Indians and French (J.K. Wiggin, 1867)
• A Glance at the Ecclesiastical Councils of New England (Wiggin & Lunt, 1867)
• The Church Polity of the Puritans the Polity of the New Testament (1870)
• Memoranda, Historical, Chronological, &c: Prepared with the Hope to Aid Those Whose Interest in Pilgrim Memorials, and History, Is Freshened by This Jubilee Year (T. Todd, 1870)
  • http://books.google.com/books?id=pmswMA5U6d0C
  • aka "Pilgrim memoranda". 25 copies printed.
• As to Roger Williams and His Banishment from the Massachusetts Colony (Congregational Publishing Society, 1876)
  • http://www.archive.org/details/astorogerwilliam00dextuoft
  • http://books.google.com/books?id=pCCo_E6kbUIC
• Things (T. Todd, 1876)
• The Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, As Seen in Its Literature (Harper & Brothers, 1880)
  • http://books.google.com/books?id=_PwQAAAAIAAJ
• A Handbook of Congregationalism (1880)
  • http://www.archive.org/details/handbookofcongre00dextuoft
• The True Story of John Smyth, the Se Baptist, told by Himself and his Contemporaries (1881)
  • http://books.google.com/books?id=ld5LAAAAMAAJ [corrupt digitization]
• [reprint of Roger Williams] "Christenings Make Not Christians," 1645. A Long-Lost Tract Recovered And Exactly Reprinted. (S. S. Rider, 1881)
• Common Sense as to Woman Suffrage (1885)
  • He is against it, and an extremely nitpicky and logical dissection of the pro-suffrage arguments is quickly followed by a vague and illogical argument against it.
  • http://books.google.com/books?id=UdEnX1uXl8QC
  • See also Arguments Against Woman Suffrage by H.M. Dexter Carefully Examined and Completely Refuted, by Daniel Parker Livermore
• The England and Holland of the Pilgrims -- finished posthumuously (1906) by his faithful son, Henry Morton Dexter.
  • Dexter retired from the ministry in 1867 and went to Europe to compile references for this book, but apparently his thoughts turned to other things, such as Roger Williams.
  • http://www.archive.org/details/englandhollandof00dextuoft
  • http://books.google.com/books?id=btiO2axo0lsC

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