Prof. Frederic Huidekoper    

PROF. FREDERIC HUIDEKOPER, Meadville, son of H. J. and Rebecca Huidekoper, was born April 7, 1817, in a portion of Mead Township now included in Meadville, this county. He attended for a year or two village schools, but from 1825 to 1834 he had, with his brothers and sisters, private tuition in his own home. In 1834 he entered Harvard University one year in advance. After having studied that year and commenced the succeeding one, the oculist ordered him to give up study, which he did for six years. During four of these he worked on the farm, allowing himself ten minutes a day for reading. During the next two years (1839-41) he traveled in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, France and Great Britain. On his return home he studied theology during two years, but was precluded from entering the theological school at Cambridge as his sight would not safely permit the study of Hebrew, which was then required. In 1844 he aided in starting the Meadville Theological School, in which he taught during many years. His three published works are “Belief of the First Three Centuries Concerning Christ’s Mission to the Underworld” (1854), “Judaism at Rome” (1876) and “Indirect Testimony of History to the Genuineness of the Gospels” (1878). He aided in laying out Greendale Cemetery, and was instrumental after many years’ labor in straightening the southern extremity of Meadville.

History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania: containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1885, page 746

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