Thaddeus Dod was an American Presbyterian clergyman and educator who was the first principal of Washington Academy.
Background
Thaddeus Dod was born on March 7, 1740 at Newark, New Jersey, United States. The family were of New England Puritan stock, descendants of Daniel Dod, who was born in England and settled about 1645 in Branford, Connecticut. While Thaddeus was still an infant his parents moved to Mendham, Morris County, New Jersey, where he was brought up.
Education
Dod graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1773, and began his theological studies.
In 1775 he was licensed and two years later, October 15, 1777, he was ordained sine titulo by the Presbytery of New York, for work on the western frontier.
Career
To Lindley’s Settlement, an outpost newly established by pioneers from New Jersey, on Ten Mile Creek in the present Washington County, Dod had made his way that summer, and had there found his future field of work. A week after his ordination he again started westward with his wife and two children; but conditions in western Pennsylvania were unfavorable, and for two years he stayed at Patterson’s Creek.
In September 1779 he moved with his family to Ten Mile, where he acquired a farm, built a log cabin, and started his pastoral work. The Ten Mile church was formally organized on August 15, 1781. In addition to his ministerial duties there, Dod preached at other settlements where there was no resident pastor. In the spring of 1782, in a log cabin near his own home, Dod opened, with thirteen pupils, the first classical school wrest of the Alleghanies. There he taught English, the classics, and mathematics—this last including surveying.
His log cabin academy was closed in the autumn of 1785, when he sold his farm. He had accepted the position reluctantly and for one year only, though he stayed a few months longer, dividing his time between Washington and Ten Mile. The court-house in which the academy met was burned in the winter of 1790-91, and Dod lost most of his books in the fire. Before the academy reopened, another school was started at Canonsburg, which later became Jefferson College; while Washington Academy became in 1806 Washington College. Yet he was not superior to the current amenities of theological controversy.
Achievements
Views
Quotations:
“To the witness of Cain, I might add those of Balaam, Saul, Ahab, Judas, Simon the Sorcerer, Julian the Apostate, and John Wesley. ”
Personality
As a clergyman, Dod laid his emphasis on personal piety and he is spoken of as a “son of consolation. ”
Connections
Dod married Phebe Baldwin, whose sister Mary was the wife of his brother Lebbeus.