Edwards family papers

JONATHAN EDWARDS, SR., 1798-1875

JONATHAN EDWARDS was born in Hartford, Conn., Sept. 27, 1798, and was the eldest son of Jonathan Walter Edwards (Y. C.1789), a distinguished lawyer of Hartford, and son of the younger President Edwards. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. Moses Tryon, of Wethersfield, Conn.

After leaving college, he studied law with Chief-Justice Zephaniah Swift (Y. C. 1778), of Windham, Conn., was admitted to the bar in 1824, and was for a few years a practicing attorney in Hartford. In 1830 he went to the island of Cuba to reside, but the death of his father in April, 1831, changed his plans, and induced him to return to his native city. In 1835 he was appointed by the state legislature judge of probate for the district of Hartford, and held the office for one year. In 1836 he was nominated by the Whigs for secretary of state, but was defeated, with all his associates on the ticket. He removed in 1838 to Troy, N. Y., where he was subsequently mayor of the city (1854 and 1855) as well as a member of the state legislature in the same years.

He was married, March 1, 1837, to Maria Champion, of Colchester, Conn. After her death he removed in the spring of 1867 with his son to New Haven, Conn., where he spent the remainder of his life in invalid retirement. He died in this city, quite suddenly, of a congestive chill, Aug. 23, 1875, in his 77th year. His only son graduated at this college in 1863.

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale College Deceased from June, 1870, to June, 1880. p. 209

JONATHAN EDWARDS, JR., 1841-1886

*JONATHAN EDWARDS, son of Jonathan (Y.C., '19) and Maria (Champion) Edwards, was born at Troy, N. Y., October 5, 1841. He was prepared for college in the city of New Haven.

Immediately after graduation he made a tour through some of the Western States, and commenced the study of medicine in Troy, in January, 1864. Later he attended lectures in the Albany Medical College, and from October, 1865, to March, 1867, was a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York City, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in the latter month.

He never practised his profession, but devoted all his time to the care of an invalid father, with whom he fixed his residence in New Haven. For several years he acted as Class secretary, and edited the first history of the Class. During his residence in New Haven he was greatly interested in the collection of coins, devoting much of his time and labor gratuitously to the care and increase of the college collection, and also having a valuable collection of his own. He prepared a catalogue of Greek and Roman coins in the numismatic collection of Yale College, which he edited and printed, largely at his own expense. He also devoted considerable time to making a collection of facts for the history of the Edwards family. He made several trips to Europe, from the last of which he returned with his constitution undermined by Roman fever, passing the rest of his life in New Haven in increasing weakness, where he died June 19, 1886.

He married, February 28, 1882, Marion Collins, daughter of Clarissa and the late David C. Collins.

A History of the Class of 1863, Yale College. New York, 1889. p.58