Heman Humphrey should not be confused with Herman L. Humphrey.
| Heman Humphrey | |
| President of Amherst College | |
| Term Start: | 1823 |
| Term End: | 1845 |
| Predecessor: | Zephaniah Swift Moore |
| Successor: | Edward Hitchcock |
| Birth Date: | 26 March 1779 |
| Birth Place: | West Simsbury, Connecticut |
| Death Place: | Pittsfield, Massachusetts |
| Alma Mater: | Yale University |
| Spouse: | Sophia Porter (1785-1868) |
| Children: | James Humphrey (New York politician) |
| Signature: | Signature of Heman Humphrey (1779–1861).png |
Heman Humphrey (March 26, 1779 – April 3, 1861) was a 19th-century American author and clergyman who served as a trustee of Williams College and afterward as the second president of Amherst College, a post he held for 22 years.[1] [2] [3] [4]
Humphrey was born in West Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut (which became Canton, Connecticut) to farmer Solomon Humphrey, of a family that came from England before 1643, and Hannah, daughter of Captain John Brown.[5] His family moved to present-day Burlington, Connecticut at the age of six. He taught at local schools starting at age 15. He worked as a farm laborer for John Treadwell before entering university.[6]
Humphrey graduated from Yale University with an A.M. in 1805 and was ordained a Congregational minister on March 16, 1807. He became a minister in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1807, moving to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1817. His 1813 report to the Fairfield Association is one of the earliest temperance tracts published in America.[7] Humphrey is also said to have published six articles in The Panoplist and Missionary Magazine on the cause, origin, effects and remedy of intemperance.[8]
Following his tenure at Williams College, in 1823 he was appointed president of Amherst.[9] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1842.[10] Humphrey was influential in the nineteenth-century temperance movement and typical of the early proponents of prohibition.[11] He was the father of U.S. Representative James Humphrey.