Edward William Cornelius Humphrey

Edward William Cornelius Humphrey (May 23, 1844 – March 22, 1917), also known as E.W.C. Humphrey, "Alphabet Humphrey," "Judge Humphrey," or "The Hon. E.W.C. Humphrey," was a theological and legal scholar and influential member of the National Presbyterian General Assembly. A Harvard graduate with an honorary degree from Amherst, he was also an 1864 graduate of Centre College,[1][2] of which he became a trustee in 1885. He was a trustee of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and for forty-four successive terms was elected Director of the Louisville Law Library Company.[3] He was a key figure in a long discussion and eventual acceptance of a Presbyterian creed revision held in May 1902 in New York City by the national Presbyterian General Assembly.

Edward William Cornelius Humphrey
Born(1844-05-23)May 23, 1844
Louisville, Kentucky
DiedMarch 22, 1917(1917-03-22) (aged 72)
Jefferson County, Kentucky
Resting placeCave Hill Cemetery
Alma materCentre College, Amherst College Honorary A.M., Harvard University
OccupationLawyer, legal scholar
Spouse(s)Jessamine Barkley Humphrey (1846–1905)
ChildrenCatherine Prather Humphrey Hobson (1869–1936), Sally Green Humphrey Price (1871–1906), Edward Porter Humphrey (1873–1955), Lewis Craig Humphrey (1875–1927), Heman Humphrey (1880–1945), Jessamine Humphrey Reinhard (1882–1935), Mary Brown Humphrey (1885–1980)
Parent(s)Reverend Doctor Edward Porter Humphrey (1809–1887), Catherine Cornelia Prather Humphrey ((1816–1844))

Education

Humphrey graduated in 1864 from Centre College, where he attended classes in the Old Centre building, now on the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest academic building west of the Alleghenies. After graduating from Centre, he received an honorary A.M. degree from Amherst College. Subsequently, he studied law at the University of Louisville and at Harvard, class of 1866.[4]

Law practice

Edward William Cornelius Humphrey practiced law with the firm of Humphrey & Davie of Louisville.[5][6][7] During his long career on the Board of Trustees of Centre College, he was in charge of the school's extensive property interests. He was also a trustee of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and served on the committee which united the North and South Presbyterian Kentucky seminaries and colleges.[8]

In 1874 E.W.C. was chosen director and treasurer of the Louisville Law Library Company, a position for which he was re-elected for forty-four successive terms. .[3]

Presbyterianism

Edward William Cornelius's drafted creed proposal was accepted by vote of the General Assembly of which he was a voting member. He was one of six Presbyterians charged with drafting the proposal regarding creed revision. The other five members of the committee were ordained Presbyterian ministers, one of whom was the General Assembly moderator.[9]

2016-05-10 1951 Louisville-Courier-Journal photo September 28, 1902 of Centenary Jubilee Presbyterian leaders

E.W.C. Humphrey was an active Presbyterian elder, legal advisor to a large body of Presbyterian associations based in Louisville, Kentucky and a voting participant on a strategic creed revision enacted at the National Presbyterian General Assembly of 1901. At an 1895 meeting of the congregation of the College Street Presbyterian Church of Louisville, elders of the church E.W.C. Humphrey and Thomas Speed, a United States Representative from Kentucky were designated to notify the Presbytery of the members' vote to accept the resignation of the church minister.[10] (In Presbyterianism church governance involves levels of decision-making, from church member, to Presbyterian elder, to Presbyterian session, to Presbyterian synod, to representatives to the Presbyterian General Assembly, where final votes on Presbyterian Church creed and Presbyterian polity are decided.)

In 1897, in accordance with Presbyterian polity a meeting of Presbyterian elders and ministers was held at Edward William Cornelius's home in Louisville, Kentucky to begin to organize and discuss the merging of the northern Presbyterian church and the southern Presbyterian church in the United States.[11]

In 1901, an overflow crowd gathered to hear discussions on Presbyterian creed revision which was held at Princeton Theological Seminary. At this meeting E.W.C. Humphrey and Dr. William McKibben presented the minority report.[12]

A meeting of the Presbyterian creed revision committee before submitting proposal to the national General Assembly. Photo includes President Benjamin Harrison and Judge Edward William Cornelius Humphrey.

On October 15, 1902 the Centenary Jubilee of Kentucky Presbyterians was the cause for reflection and celebration in Lexington, Kentucky of the history of the church formed in the Kentucky wilderness of 1802. . Included in the event was "A Historical Sketch of the Synod" by Hon. E.W.C. Humphrey.[13]

E. W. C. Humphrey, as a Presbyterian Church Elder from Louisville, was appointed by the Presbyterian General Assembly to serve on the national committee which met in Philadelphia on February 5, 1902 to consider creed revision. . The group of six was charged with preparing the statement for changes to be presented to the General Assembly the following May in New York. The Fort Wayne Sentinel reported, "Final action, it is expected, will also be taken on the questions of a brief statement from Presbyterian doctrine and a declaratory statement concerning debatable points in the Confession of Faith."[9][14]

On the final vote of the Presbyterian General Assembly, all of the committee's creed changes were accepted except those not recommended by Edward William Cornelius Humphrey and Rev. Dr. William McKibben, who led the dissenting opinion on those changes. .[15][16]

Biography and family

He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Reverend Doctor Edward Porter Humphrey (1809–1887), a noted Presbyterian minister, and Catherine Cornelia Prather Humphrey (1816–1844).[17][18]

He was the grandson of Congregationalist minister Heman Humphrey, an author of theological treatises and the second president of Amherst College. His mother Catherine, whose portrait as a young girl was painted by Matthew Harris Jouett,[19] died shortly after Edward's birth, and afterward his father Rev. Edward Porter Humphrey married Martha Anne Fontaine Pope.

Childhood portrait of Catherine Cornelia Prather Humphrey by Matthew Jouett.

E.W.C.Humphrey (Edward William Cornelius Humphrey) married his second wife Jessamine Barkley (1846–1905), of Danville, Kentucky on October 22, 1867, and their children were Catherine Prather Humphrey Hobson (1869–1936), newspaper editor Lewis Craig Humphrey (1875–1927), Dr. Heman Humphrey (1880–1945) (a physician and namesake of Amherst President Heman Humphrey)[20] and bookmobile advocate/librarian Mary Brown Humphrey (1885–1980).[21] He was the half-brother of Federal Circuit Court Judge Alexander Pope Humphrey (1848–1928).[22][23] Edward William Cornelius Humphrey's son Edward Porter Humphrey (1873–1955)[24] eventually became a member of the law firm headed by Judge A. (Alexander) Pope Humphrey. E.W.C. Humphrey was the father of Lewis Craig Humphrey, editor of the Louisville Evening Post and the Louisville Herald

Edward William Cornelius Humphrey was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery, the Louisville garden cemetery for which his father [25][26] had given the original dedicatory address.[21] The Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

References
  1. Centre College Alumni, Published 1890. Jefferson Co., 1864 graduate
  2. http://library.centre.edu/sc/catalogs/cc1863.pdf
  3. "The Davies Project: Databases". daviesproject.princeton.edu. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  4. Eliot Norton (1890s), The Harvard Law School, p. 69
  5. "Voice Shook As Tribute to Mr. Davie Was Read: Associates of Late Lawyer Pay Their Last Respects, Largely Attended Meeting". The Courier-Journal (Saturday, page 8). March 13, 1897. Retrieved May 30, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Resolutions on the Death of Mr. E. W. C. Humphrey by the Louisville Bar Association". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. April 1, 1917. p. 10. Retrieved May 10, 2016.
  7. "Resolutions on the Death of Mr. E.W.C. Humphrey, By the Louisville Bar Association". The Courier-Journal. p. 10. Retrieved August 12, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Death's Summons Came in Sleep to Mr. Humphrey: His Passing Removes Esteemed Citizen, Scholar and Leader of Presbyterians". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. March 22, 1917. Mr. Humphrey was a graduate of Centre College in Danville, and took a post-graduate course in law at Harvard University. He later received an honorary degree of M.A. from Amherst College, Mass. He practiced law in Louisville.... when he retired from active practice . . . maintained an office in connection with the establishment of Bruce & Bullitt.
  9. "Revision to be Discussed To-Day". The Times. Philadelphia. May 23, 1901. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com. The two reports from the majority and minority of the revision committee...find that a plurality of presbyteries which have been interrogated by the committee since its appointment at the last assembly are in favor of some new statement of present doctrines...to prepare amendment to the Confession of Faith... The minority report will be handed in by Elder Humphrey, of Louisville.
  10. "Vote to Accept". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. March 21, 1895. p. 6. Retrieved September 7, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "To Unite—Movement of Northern and Southern Presbyterians—Resolutions Adopted". The Courier-Journal (Saturday, page 8). March 13, 1897 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Great Day at the General Assembly". Harrisburg Telegraph. May 24, 1901. p. 1. Retrieved September 7, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "The Coming Centennial Jubilee of Kentucky Presbyterians". The Courier-Journal (Sunday morning). Louisville, Kentucky. September 28, 1902. p. 13.
  14. The Fort Wayne Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana), February 5, 1902, Page 1.
  15. "Will Make Creed More Clear". April 27, 1901. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Will Make Creed More Clear". Davenport Daily Republican. Retrieved May 30, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. Kleber, John E. (2001). The Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky. p. 719. ISBN 0813128900. Retrieved August 19, 2016. Thomas Prather . . . Catherine Cornelia
  18. "Edward Porter Humphrey (1809-1887) - Find a Grave".
  19. "SIRIS – Smithsonian Institution Research Information System". siris-artinventories.si.edu.
  20. "Dr. Heman Humphrey, Physician, Dies at 65". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. September 4, 1945. p. 13.
  21. Find A Grave Memorial#86491575
  22. Levin, H., ed. (1897). Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky (Southern Historical Press ed.). Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company. p. 209.
  23. "Babies In Jail". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. October 8, 1895. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. "Funeral for E.P.Humphrey, Attorney, Will Be Tomorrow". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. Newspapers.com. January 24, 1955. p. 20. "Burial will be in Cave Hill Cemetery . . . . active in Democratic politics. . . . Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Henrietta Humphrey, three stepsons . . . . and a sister, Miss Mary Brown Humphrey, Iowa City, Iowa.
  25. "Edward%20William%20Cornellius%20Humphrey". filsonhistorical.org.
  26. "Edward Porter Humphrey (1809–1887) – Find A Grave Memorial". findagrave.com.
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