History of Meriden, (New Haven County) Connecticut United States of America

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Levi Silliman Ives, second bishop of North Carolina and 25th in succession to the American episcopate, was born in Meriden, Conn., Sept. 16, 1797. He removed with his parents to Turin, Lewis county, N.Y., where he lived until 1812, when he entered the Lowville academy. He served one year in the war of 1812, and in 1816 entered Hamilton college, intending to become a Presbyterian minister, but ill-health prevented his finishing the college course. In 1819 he was baptized and confirmed in the Protestant Episcopal church, and he studied theology with Bishop Hobart, of New York, whose daughter Rebecca he married in 1822. He was made a deacon in 1822 and a priest in 1823. He was rector at Baravia, N.Y.; of Trinity church, Philadelphia; Christ church, Lancaster, Pa., 1827, and Christ church, New York city, 1828-31. In 1831 he was elected bishop of North Carolina, and was consecrated, September 22, by Bishops White and H. U. and B. T. Onderdonk. He went to the extreme in advocating ritualistic worship and in teaching the slaves, which gave offence to the church-men of his diocese. He visited Rome and made a formal sub- mission to the pope, Dec. 25, 1852, and at the next general convention of the Episcopal church he was deposed from his bishopric. He returned to the United States, was made professor of rhetoric in St. Joseph's Theological seminary, New York city, and a lecturer on that subject in the convents of the Sacred Heart and the Sisters of Charity. He became president of the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul, and in 1828 founded the Catholic male protectory and the House of the Angels, a home for orphans, and was president of both until his death. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1834. His published works include: Catechism; Manual of Devotion; Humility a Ministerial Qualification (1840); The Apostles' Doctrine and Fellowship (1844); Sermons on the Obedience of Faith (1849); The Trials of a Mind in its Progress to Catholicism (1854). He died in New York, Oct. 13, 1876.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Meriden, (New Haven County) Connecticut

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