SEWALL TENNEY
Son of Silas and Rebecca (Bailey) Tenney, was born in Bradford, Mass., August 27, 1801. His father, (four of whose sons are graduates of Dartmouth, and all clergymen,) removed about three years after to Chester, N. H.; and died, on a visit to Standish, Me., July 10, 1834. His mother “ still lives, ninety-six years of age, in the full possession of all her mental faculties, and as much interested as ever in all that concerns earth and Heaven."
He was prepared for college, principally, at Moor's School, Hanover, N.H., under the tuition of Archelaus F. Putnam. After graduating, he taught the Academy in Sanbornton, N.H., one year; completed the course of theological study at Andover, Mass., in 1831, and was ordained an evangelist, August 10, of that year; supplied a pulpit in Gorham, Me., a few months; and then became pastor of the Bethel Church, Portland, Me., where he remained until the autumn of 1835. He was installed, November 11, 1835, as pastor of the Congregational Church in Ellsworth, Me.; which relation, by a happy exception to the frequent change now common in ministerial life, he has held for more than a third of a century.
He was elected a Trustee of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., in 1859; and received the degree of D.D. from the same Institution in 1861.
He was married, Oct. 21, 1833, to Sarah Moody, daughter of John Pearson, Esq., of Bangor, Me.; formerly of Newburyport, Mass.
Rev. Thomas Tenney, of the Class of 1825, Rev. Charles Tenney, of the Class of 1835, and Rev. Daniel Tenney, of the Class of 1841, are his brothers.
