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Means, John Oliver, D.D.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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Means, Alexander, D.D., LL.D.

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a Congregational minister, was born at Augusta, Maine, August 1, 1822. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1843, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1849, having meanwhile served four years as purser in the navy. He was ordained December 3, 1851, pastor at East Medway, Massachusetts, a position which he held for four years, and in 1857 became pastor of the Vine Street Congregational Church, at Roxbury, where he remained for eighteen years. In 1875 he resigned his position to become secretary of the Massachusetts Sunday-school Publication Society, but was soon called into a wider sphere of usefulness, the secretaryship of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which he held at the time of his death, December 8, 1883. Dr. Means also served on the Boston School Board. He was president of the Roxbury Athenaeum, and held other trusts. He was also a member of the Royal Geographical Society of England. He visited Europe in the interest of the missionary society, and was highly esteemed by all denominations.