The Southern Presbyterian Review
Digitization Project: Author Biography

Lewis Green Barbour
(September 19, 1829 - July 17, 1907)
by Barry Waugh, Ph.D.
©PCA Historical Center, 12330 Conway Road, St. Louis, MO, 2003. All Rights Reserved.

Lewis Green Barbour was born to Major James and Letitia Barbour on Sept. 19, 1829. He grew up attending the Presbyterian Church at Danville, Kentucky where he made a profession of faith at the age of fourteen. He attended Centre College and graduated from there in 1846 with a BA, and an MA in 1847. Following a year of working as a clerk in a mercantile store, he entered Princeton Seminary in 1847. Lewis was not able to pursue his divinity studies continuously due to some health problems that interrupted his progress during the second year, but he was able to recover from his illness and graduated in 1851.

The Presbytery of Transylvania licensed Lewis to preach the gospel September 19, 1851, and the Muhlenberg Presbytery ordained him to the ministry in October of 1854. From June 1852 until the fall of 1854, he served as a ministerial supply to the Presbyterian Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky, he then continued at that church until October 1855 as the pastor of the congregation. In July of 1860, his professional life took a turn when he changed from the ministry to being the principal of an academy in Lexington, Missouri, where he worked until August of 1865. After a year of teaching in another Lexington school, he became principal of the Caldwell Institute in Danville, Kentucky from 1866 to 1874. It was during 1874 that Lewis was given an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Centre College. Washington and Lee University also awarded him the honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1894. His next vocational service was as Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Central University, Richmond, Kentucky, where he taught from 1874 until 1901. From 1903 until his death on July 17, 1907, Dr. Barbour lived in Louisville, Kentucky.
D
r. Barbour married Elizabeth Ann Ford on June 20, 1854 in Danville and they had two sons and two daughters.
L.G. Barbour's publication efforts included a book, The End of Time: A Poem of the Future, (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1892); articles and pamphlets on mathematics; two articles in The Presbyterian Quarterly; and several articles in The Southern Presbyterian Review including ones on the subjects of logic, natural theology, and mysticism. He also served on the editorial staff of both the Transylvania Presbyterian and the Kentucky Presbyterian.
   
Sources: Compiled from: E. C. Scott, Ministerial Directory of the Presbyterian Church, U.S., 1861-1941, Published by Order of the General Assembly, 1942; Alfred Nevin, ed., Presbyterian Encyclopedia, 1884; and Necrological Reports and Annual Proceedings of the Alumni Association of Princeton Theological Seminary, vol. 3, 1900-1909, Princeton, 1909. Various genealogical web-sites and educational library catalogs were also consulted. The above etching is from Nevin's Presbyterian Encyclopedia.

Bibliography:
Books-
The End of Time: A Poem of the Future, (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1892), 191pp.; YUS; KEU; KTS; KUK; LUU; HLS; EYP; ZCU; VYN; RBN; TUU; TMA; TKN; IXA; VUT; Microform: RBN
Articles-

The Southern Presbyterian Review-
A Brief in the Case of the Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister, 35.2 (April 1884) 191-215.
Cosmic Vapor 32.3 (July 1881) 511-539.
Logic and the Laws of Thought, 23.4 (October 1872) 519-539.
Medieval and Modern Mystics, 30.2 (April 1879) 219-257.
Natural Theology. 21.4 (October, 1870) 572-593.
One Phase of the Prayer Question, 31.4 (October 1880) 746-766.
The Christ of John, 33.3 (July 1882) 439-462.
The Morality of Actions, Volitions, Desires, Emotions, Cognitions, and Dispositions, 25.3 (July 1874) 307-330.
The Presbyterian Quarterly-
Anselm, 9.3 (July 1895) 397-425.
Macbeth and the Bible, 14.1 (January 1900) 102-115.
Puzzling Questions, 15.4 (October 1901) 558-570.
St. John's Argument from Miracles, 5.1 (January 1891) 1-32.
The Dualism of Truth, 17.3 (January 1904) 325-338
The General Assembly of 1888 [Southern], 2.2 (July 1888) 286-306.
[see also Barbour's note of correction in 2.3 (October 1888) 480.