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John Dempster was born on January 2, 1794 in Florida, Montgomery County, New York, United States. His father, the Reverend James Dempster, a Scotch Presbyterian and a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, came under Methodist influence and was sent by Wesley to America, where he served as a missionary in New York City. Severing his Methodist connection, he became pastor of the Presbyterian church in Florida, New York, where he died in 1803.
John grew up after the death of his father a frivolous young man with scarcely the rudiments of a common- school education.
At the age of eighteen, while employed as a tin-peddler, Dempster received at a Methodist camp meeting a powerful religious impulse which transformed his life. He at once began a rigorous course of self-education which continued as long as he lived.
Almost without instruction he became a proficient scholar in the classics, mathematics, Hebrew, theology, and philosophy, at the same time preaching constantly.
In 1816 he began a regular conference ministry and served various charges in New York State with growing power and influence till 1836, when on account of impaired health he went to Buenos Aires where he built a Methodist church, established day and Sunday-schools and had an active ministry among the Protestant population of the city arid the surrounding region.
Returning to the United States in 1842, he spent the next three years in two Methodist pastorates in New York City. Early in his ministry he became convinced of the need of theological training for Methodist ministers and zealously advocated it, often in the face of stubborn opposition. Largely as the result of his efforts which were continued by correspondence from South America, the Wesley Theological Institute was founded at Newbury, Vermont, in 1845, the first Methodist theological seminary in the United States. It was removed to Concord, North Florida, in 1847 and to Boston in 1867, later becoming the Theological School of Boston University. At the close of his New York ministry, Dempster spent several months in the British Isles, making friends and collecting funds for the school, after which he passed seven years as professor of theology at Concord, exerting a strong influence on his pupils and throughout the region.
In 1854 he resigned and became one of the founders of the Garrett Biblical Institute in Chicago, taking, when its permanent faculty was formed in 1855, the office of senior professor, Denby which he held till the close of his life. He died while on a leave of absence for the purpose of founding a theological seminary on the Pacific Coast.
The only book that bears his name is, Lectures and Addresses with an Appendix, containing the Funeral Sermon and Memorial Services occasioned by the Death of the Author (1864), edited by the Reverend Davis W. Clark.
Dempster was of medium size, pale, with bright eyes, deep and penetrating voice, courtly manners and impressive presence. He had a strong will, great originality and an alert and philosophical mind. He was widely read and inspired his pupils with enthusiasm.
Dempster had one son and three daughters.
