David Trumbull was an early Protestant missionary in Chile and the founder of the Presbyterian Church in that country.
Background
Trumbull, the son of John M. and Hannah W. (Tunis) Trumbull, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, November 1, 1819, his father being a grandson of Governor Jonathan Trumbull, the elder, of Connecticut. He entered early on a business career in New York City, but when the house with which he was connected was blotted out in the commercial panic of 1837, he returned to his father, who had now removed to Colchester, Connecticut, and was prepared at the academy there for the Sophomore class in Yale College.
Career
After graduation in 1842 he spent three years in Princeton Theological Seminary, and was ordained at Norwich, Connecticut, as a foreign missionary on June 13, 1845. He landed in Valparaiso on Christmas Day, 1845, and began at once what proved to be his life-long work. In 1847 a Union Church was organized, and in 1848 he began the publication of an English paper.
The next month he sailed again for Valparaiso, which was his home for the rest of his life.
The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by his Alma Mater in 1884. In 1879 he was attacked with angina pectoris, and sought rest by a long visit to the United States.
In 1886 there was a return of the disease, which was thenceforward kept in control by constant watchfulness. Special exertion at the end of December, 1888, brought on another series of attacks, and his death followed on February 1, in his 70th year.
This article incorporates public domain material from the 1889 Yale Obituary Record.