Horr was born in Boston, Massachussets, in 1856, to George Edwin and Elsie Matilda (Ellis) Horr. He was descended from John Hoar, a Revolutionary soldier who was at Concord Bridge; his great-grandfather, Joseph, changed the patronymic to Horr. Soon after the younger George's birth his father was ordained to the Baptist ministry and the boy's home was a shifting one.
At the high school in Newark, N. J. , he prepared for college, ranking first in his class and winning a scholarship prize which enabled him to enter Brown University. Here he made a high record and pursued extracurricular studies in the classics, philosophy, and history. Graduating in 1876, he spent one year at Union Theological Seminary and completed his ministerial preparation at Newton Theological Institution in 1879.
His first pastorate was at Tarrytown, N. Y. , where he was ordained December 2, 1879. Early in 1884 he became pastor of the First Baptist Church, Charlestown, Massachussets, and spent the remainder of his life in Boston and vicinity.
After some avocational service as associate editor, he was in 1901 chosen editor of the Watchman, the leading New England Baptist weekly. The words which President Lowell of Harvard used in conferring an honorary degree, though specifically asserted of his influence in education for the Christian ministry, are peculiarly applicable to his work for the Christian cause through a denominational paper, – "broad in outlook, rich in sympathy, a wise leader. "
From his first association with Newton Theological Institution, Horr was actively interested in its development. He became a member of its board of trustees in 1892; professor of church history in 1904; and president, by unanimous choice, in 1908. In this position he did most valuable constructive work. In addition to securing a considerable increase in the endowment, he made a larger and more direct use of the educational environment and brought the seminary into more vital contact with the changing requirements of the churches.
He became a fellow of Brown University in 1896 and a trustee of Wellesley College in 1904. He wrote important portions of Dr. Thomas Armitage's History of the Baptists (1887); among the more important of his other writings are The Christian Faith and Human Relations (1922), and The Baptist Heritage (1923). In 1910 he delivered a Dudleian lecture at Harvard on "Sacerdotalism, " published in the Harvard Theological Review, July 1910; and in 1923, the Ingersoll lecture, The Christian Faith and Eternal Life (1923). He retired from active service immedicately after the centenary of Newton in June 1925, remaining as president emeritus until his death.
On March 16, 1886, he married Mrs. Evelyn Olmsted Sacchi, who survived him two years.
