History of Asbury, (Gloucester County) New Jersey United States of America

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Charles Force Deems, clergyman and educator, was born in Baltimore, Md., Dec. 4, 1820; son of the Rev. George W. and Mary (Roberts) Deems, and grandson, on his mother's side, of the Rev. Zachary Roberts, a Methodist minister, who lived on the eastern shore of Maryland. On his father's side he was a descendant of a Dutch family that came from Holland and settled in Maryland somewhere between Reistertown and Baltimore. The original name, De Heems, was shortened into Deems. Charles was educated in Baltimore in a school conducted by the Rev. V. R. Osborn, a New England clergyman, and when thirteen years old he began to make public addresses on the subjects "Temperance," and "Sunday Schools," and at the same time to contribute to the religious newspapers both prose and verse. In 1834 he entered the preparatory school connected with Dickinson college and was graduated at Dickinson in 1839. He then visited New York city, where he preached as supply in prominent Methodist churches, 1839-40. He joined the New Jersey conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1840 and was stationed as pastor at Asbury, Warren county, N.J., 1840-41. He was general agent for North Carolina of the American Bible society, 1841-42. He was professor of logic and rhetoric in the University of North Carolina as successor to the Rev. Dr. William Mercer Green, 1842-47. He resigned in 1847 and was professor of natural sciences in Randolph-Macon college, Boydton, Va., in 1848. Early in 1849 he entered the itinerancy and was stationed at Newbern, N.C. He was a delegate to the General conference of the Methodist church south at St. Louis, Mo., in May, 1850. While there he was elected to the presidency of Greensboro (N.C.) female college. While holding that office he founded and organized at Glenanna, Davidson county, a preparatory seminary for young ladies. In 1854 he was a delegate to the General conference at Columbus, Ga., and was elected president of Centenary college, Louisiana. This office he declined, at the same time resigning the presidency of Greensboro college, and returning to the itinerancy. He joined the Everittsville circuit, residing in Goldsboro, N.C., 1854-56, and in Wilmington, N.C., 1856-58. He was presiding elder of the Wilmington district, 1858-62, and of the Newbern district, 1862-65. While serving as presiding elder he accepted the presidency of St. Austin's institute, Wilson, N.C., and organized and conducted a prosperous school in two departments, one a young ladies' seminary and the other a military academy, 1860-63. He gave much time to ministering to the wants of the soldiers in the Confederate army. After tILe close of the war he removed to New York city, where he engaged in literary pursuits, and in August, 1866, established the Church of the Strangers, an independent organization, holding its first meetings in the chapel of the University of the city of New York and subsequently in the church edifice formerly occupied by the Mercer street Presbyterian church, which was purchased and presented to Dr. Deems by Cornelius Vanderbilt, in 1870. His acquaintance with Commodore Vanderbilt also led indirectly to the building and endowment of Vanderbilt university, Nashville, Tenn. He was president of Rutgers female college, New York city, 1874-76; a member of the council of the University of the city of New York, 1876-93, and founder of the American Institute of Christian philosophy in 1881, and its president, 1881-93. He founded and edited The Christian Watchman, 1848; The Christian Age, 1872, Christian Thought, 1883, and also edited five volumes of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Pulpit, 1846-51; compiled three volumes of Annals of Southern Methodism, 1849-52; and edited Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine from its foundation in 1876 for three years. He was married at Asbury, N.J., June 20, 1843, to Anne, daughter of Israel D. and Letitia Disosway, and they had children: Theodore Disosway, born in 1844, killed in the civil war; Francis Mellville, born in 1846, a physician; Edward Mark, born in 1849, a Presbyterian clergyman; George Israel, born in 1854, died in infancy, and two daughters, Mary Letitia and Anna Louise. His widow and four children survived him. He received the degree of D.D. from Randolph Macon college, Va., in 1853, and that of LL.D. from the University of North Carolina in 1877 and from Dickinson college in 1889. Besides publishing several volumes of sermons and many addresses, he was a frequent contributor to periodical literature, and is the author of: Triumph of Peace and Other Poems (1840); Life of Adam Clarke, LL.D. (1840); Devotional Melodies (1842); Twelve College Sermons (1844); The Home Altar (1850); What Now? (1853); Jesus (1868); Hymns for All Christians (1869, new ed., 1881); Forty Sermons Preached in the Church of the Strangers (1871); Who Was Jesus? (a new edition of Jesus); Weights and Wings (1874); A Scotch Verdict (1886); The Gospel of Common Sense (1889); The Gospel of Spiritual Insight (1891); a new edition of Jesus entitled The Light of the Nations ,(1880); and My Septuagint (1892), written by Dr. Deems after his 70th birthday. He died in New York city, Nov. 18, 1893.

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

History of Asbury, (Gloucester County) New Jersey

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