FRANK SEWALL
SEWALL, FRANK, S.T.D., clergyman, author and educator, was born in Bath, Maine, September 24, 1837. His father, a man of "business enterprise, independent thought and deep religious convictions," was, by occupation, a ship-builder. He held the office of representative in the legislature of his state. The influence of his mother was of an elevating nature morally and spiritually. His earliest known American ancestor, Henry Sewall, came from Coventry, England, to Newbury, New England, in 1634; and his great grandfather, Colonel Dummer Sewall, an officer in the Revolutionary army, and a man of marked individuality, was prominent among the founders of Bath, Maine. In his youth Frank had vigorous health and found his particular delights in nature, books and music. He grew up in the busy town of Bath, Maine, taking his share of the labors about the house with his brothers. From the private school of the Misses Allen, he entered the regular grammar and high school course of the public schools, and was admitted freshman at Bowdoin college in 1854, graduating from that institution with the degree A.B. in 1858. At Tubingen and Berlin universities he studied philosophy and theology, 1859-61, in Tubingen, following courses in both the Catholic and Protestant seminaries. Among the lecturers he heard were Hefele, Christian Baur, Michelet, Ranke and Bopp. In 1862, Bowdoin college gave him the degree of A.M.; and in 1902, that of S.T.D.
He began his active life-work in Glendale, near Cincinnati, Ohio, as a licentiate in theology, 1862. He was ordained a pastor in the New Church in 1863, and remained in the pastorate of Glendale till 1870. He became president of the New Church college at Urbana, Ohio, in 1870, and held the office until 1886. Resigning this office for a sojourn in Europe, he was a pastor at Glasgow, Scotland from 1886-88. Since 1889, he has been pastor of the New Church, Washington, District of Columbia. He is general pastor of the Maryland Association of the New Jerusalem, and chairman of the Board of
