“PARK, Edwards Amasa, son of Calvin and Abigail (Ware) Park, was born in Providence, R.I., December 29, 1808. His father was formerly a professor in Brown University, afterward a Congregational pastor in Stoughton; and he is descended on the paternal side from Richard Park, one of the original settlers of Newton. His mother was the daughter of Captain Nathaniel Ware, of Wrentham, a descendant from Robert Ware, one of the original settlers of Dedham.
Dr. Park was graduated from Brown University in 1826, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1831. He was pastor at Braintree, 1831-’33; professor of mental and moral philosophy at Amherst College, 1835-’36; professor of sacred rhetoric at Andover Theological Seminary, 1836-’47; professor of Christian theology at Andover, 1847-’81. Thus he has held a professorship in the seminary forty-five years and has been connected with it in some capacity nearly fifty-six years.
In 1842-’43, also in 1862–’63, he visited Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany. During these two visits he spent much of his time at the German universities–four months at Marburg, four months at Berlin, and three months at Halle. In 1869-’70 he made the tour of Italy, Greece, Egypt and Palestine.
He published numerous essays in theological quarterlies; sixteen or seventeen pamphlets; four volumes of memoirs; the first a memoir of Re. William Bradford Homer; the second, of Professor B.B. Edwards; the third, of Dr. Samuel Hopkins; the fourth, of Dr. Nathaniel Emmons. In 1844 he united with Professor B.B. Edwards in establishing the ‘Bibliotheca Scara,’ ans was its chief editor from 1851 till ’84. He was engaged in the publication of forty volumes of the quarterly. In connection with Professor Austin Phelps and Dr. Lowell Mason, he edited the ‘Sabbath Hymn Book,’ which reached a circulation of about a hundred and twenty thousand copies between 1859 and ’66. His first published essay appeared in 1826; his last pamphlet contained ninety-eight pages and appeared in 1883; his last publication was a volume of ‘Discourses on some Theological Doctrines as related to Religious Character,’ and appeared in 1885.
For more than thirty years he has been president of the board of trustees of Abbot Academy at Andover; by the will of the founder, he was appointed one of the original trustees of Smith College at Northampton; since 1865 he has been a member of the board of fellow of Brown University. He has been elected a member of the Victoria Institute in England, and of several historical societies in the United States.”
Source: One of a Thousand: A Series of Biographical Sketches of One Thousand Representative Men Resident in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, A.D. 1888-’89, by John C. Rand, First National Publishing Co., Boston, 1890 pages 458-9
