Hazen, James King
James King Hazen
- Born: 27 April 1833, West Springfield (now Agawam), Mass.
- Died: 22 August 1902, Bon Air, Virginia
[Note: Birth date on his grave marker is 27 April, and the encyclopedia article below says 29 April.]
Hazen, James King, D. D., was born in West Springfield (now Agawam), Mass., April 29th, 1833. He was the son of Rev. R. S. Hazen and Eunice (King) Hazen. At an early age his parents removed to Connecticut, where he prepared for college. He entered Williams College, Mass., September, 1852, and graduated, with full honors, in the class of 1856. For nearly a year after his graduation he taught in Connecticut, and in 1857 removed to Prattville, Ala., where, for three years, he was engaged in manufacturing business, with which interests he was more or less identified for many succeeding years. His collegiate course had been pursued with a view to the ministry, which had been abandoned, for reasons that seemed, at the time, to be imperative. An active Christian life attracted the attention of leading men in the Church, and Mr. Hazen was urged to enter the ministry, with a view to the pastorate of the Prattville Presbyterian Church. He was licensed by the Presbytery of East Alabama, in 1860, and assumed charge of the Prattville Church January 1st, 1861, being ordained and installed the March following. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by the Southwestern University, Clarksville, Tenn., in 1878. The General Assembly of the "Presbyterian Church in the United States," at New Orleans, May, 1877, elected him Secretary of the Presbyterian Committee of Publication, which position he has filled with marked ability and rare business tact, bringing its affairs into a sound financial condition, and placing the work upon a basis that promises a prosperous future.
Dr. Hazen's life and labors in Alabama were marked with peculiar success, and his influence for good, in Prattville and all the surrounding country, is felt to this day. Commencing his work there with a church of some twenty-four members, it grew and strengthened, under his faithful ministration, until its numbers reached nearly two hundred, with three branch churches, in a circuit of some fifteen miles, and four comfortable church buildings, as the tokens of God's blessing upon the consecrated labors of His servant.
Image and article from Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, p. 322
