Abraham Pierson - Clinton, CT
Posted by: 
neoc1
N 41° 16.658 W 072° 31.252
18T E 707630 N 4572542
A statue of Abraham Pierson, the first president of Yale College, is located on the north side of US Route 1 in Clinton, CT
Waymark Code: WMRVZ9
Location: Connecticut, United States
Date Posted: 08/10/2016
Views: 2
A 6' by 2' by 2' bronze statue of Abraham Pierson stands on a 6' high by 2.5' square granite base. The statue was sculpted by Launt Thompson in 1874 and cast at the Robert Wood & Company, foundry.
Abraham Pierson is depicted wearing knee length boots with a buckle at the instep and a ribbon at the top, clerical vestments, and clerical collar. He is wearing an academic robe is worn over his shoulders and he holds a book to his chest with his right hand.
The front of the base Is inscribed:
IN HONOR OF
THE GOOD AND LEARNED
ABRAHAM PIERSON
FIRST PRESIDENT
OF
YALE COLLEGE 1701-1707
-·-
PASTOR OF KILLINGWORTH CHURCH
NOW CLINTON 1694-1707
THE TIME OF HIS DEATH
BELOVED AND REGRETTED
BY ALL
The right side of the base is inscribed:
ERECTED BY
CHARLES MORGAN
OF NEW YORK
A NATIVE OF THIS PLACE
Abraham Pierson was born in 1646 in Southampton, Long Island, NY. Around 1647, Abraham's family moved from Southampton to Branford, New Haven Colony in what is now the State of Connecticut. He graduated from Harvard College in 1668, was ordained a minister and he joined his father in New Ark, NJ where he succeeded his father as pastor of the First Congregational Church in New Ark. He then moved to Greenwich, CT to become the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Greenwich. In 1694, he moved to Killingworth, now Clinton, CT, to become pastor of the Killingworth Congregational Church. With a library of over 400 books inherited from his father, Pierson began teaching classes in a school he founded which was to become Yale University.