Background
He was born on January 23, 1851 in Yorktown, Virginia, United States. He was the son of Robert and Abigail M. (Jencks) Power. His father was a physician with an extensive practice in the surrounding country.
He was born on January 23, 1851 in Yorktown, Virginia, United States. He was the son of Robert and Abigail M. (Jencks) Power. His father was a physician with an extensive practice in the surrounding country.
Frederick received his early education at the old-field school, near his home, and graduated from Bethany College in 1871.
After graduation he remained at Bethany College for a short time as an instructor. While in college he supplied small churches on Sundays, frequently riding twenty miles on horseback over the mountains to his appointments.
On August 13, 1871, he was ordained at Mathews Court House, Virginia. Invited to take charge of a city church, he chose rather to minister for several years to three country churches in eastern Virginia at a salary of $500. In 1874 he was called to the Disciples church in Charlottesville, Virginia. In September he went to Bethany College to become adjunct professor of ancient languages.
In 1875 he became pastor of the Vermont Avenue Christian Church, Washington, where he remained for the rest of his life. The work of the Disciples in the vicinity of Washington took on new life with his coming. President Garfield was his parishioner and intimate friend, and Power was the preacher of the former's funeral sermon. From 1881 to 1883 he was chaplain of the House of Representatives.
Early in the history of the Christian Endeavor Society he became interested in this interdenominational organization and was one of its trustees at the time of his death. He was also a trustee of Bethany College and served as president of the General Christian Missionary Society. He was on the staff of the Christian Evangelist, St. Louis, and contributed to the literature of his denomination minor works on its doctrine and progress, including Sketches of Our Pioneers (1898). In 1905 selections from Power's writings, entitled Thoughts of Thirty Years, was published with an introduction by Francis E. Clark.
He died in Washington.
For more than thirty-five years Frederick Dunglison Power was one of the most prominent clergymen of the Capital and a leader in his own denomination (Vermont Avenue Christian Church). His own church increased in size and influence, and some eight other churches were more or less its direct offshoots. He was also the founder of the Maryland, Delaware and District of Columbia Christian Missionary Society. His most substantial book was his Life of William Kimbrough Pendleton (1902), which contains much information regarding the history of the Disciples and Bethany College.
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He was a man of scholarly tastes, a preacher of more than ordinary gifts, and a writer of ability.
On March 17 of 1874 he married Emily Browne Alsop of Fredericksburg, Virginia. They had an adopted daughter.
