Background
Young was born on January 27, 1781 in Pine Brook, New Jersey, a son of Sarah (Mott) and Amos Young, a farmer. He was a great-grandson of Robert Young of Scotland who settled at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in 1685.
(Excerpt from Lectures on the Science of Astronomy, Explan...)
Excerpt from Lectures on the Science of Astronomy, Explanatory and Demonstrative, Which Were First Delivered, at Various Places in New-Jersey, in the Year 1820: With a Glossary and Supplement If Piety and) Religion may be promoted by the publication of small tracts, why may not the knowledge of astronom y and the cause of Science in general, be advanced by similar means? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Astronomer teacher almanac-maker poet
Young was born on January 27, 1781 in Pine Brook, New Jersey, a son of Sarah (Mott) and Amos Young, a farmer. He was a great-grandson of Robert Young of Scotland who settled at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in 1685.
Young's writings give evidence of a trained mind, but no record has been found of his attendance at college. Wherever acquired, his was a liberal education.
Young's religious poem, The Contrast, published at the age of twenty-three, evinces wide reading and matured thinking, and a brilliant and correct technique; his later effort, The Perusal, is cosmic and Miltonian. He had a school at Elizabeth-Town for some time, and had just passed the age of twenty when he terminated the connection, May 1801. He had applied the preceding March for a school at Turkey (later New Providence), New Jersey, with characteristic humor asking the trustees to show a good recommendation from their former master.
Young seems to have taught school, perhaps intermittently, during these early years, and also later in life, the latter period in and about Hanover Neck, Morris County. Tradition holds that he was a poor disciplinarian, and found it hard to accommodate his teaching to the younger mind. As "David Young, Philom" he first appears as almanac-maker in 1814, the publication being the Citizens' & Farmers' Almanac, published by Jacob Mann of Morristown, New Jersey. From then until his death perhaps no year passed without his name on one or more almanacs, among them the Farmers' Almanac, Hutchins' Improved Almanac, the Family Christian Almanac, and the Methodist Almanac. His longest services were with Mann's publication and with the Farmer's Almanac, published by Benjamin Olds of Newark. His quaint interpolated forecasts, "Now plant corn, " "Hereabouts expect snow, " and others, were somewhat humorous accommodations to the popular mind.
Tradition relates that Young satisfied a group of French scientists in New York with his calculation showing that no eclipse could have been the cause of the recorded phenomenon of darkness at the crucifixion of Jesus. His intellectual superiority, however, depends not on tradition but on his published works.
A substantial marble stone marked his grave in Hanover Churchyard until 1900, when a more imposing monument of granite was substituted, the old stone being whimsically removed to the Pine Brook cemetery near his birthplace.
(Excerpt from Lectures on the Science of Astronomy, Explan...)
On May 28, 1808, Young married at Newark, where he then perhaps lived, Mary Atkins of Turkey. They had no children.