He may be the most prolific writer during the antebellum era of Princeton Seminary. He wrote general and church history volumes; books for children; works for instruction in preaching; books about systematic theology subjects; numerous reviews including one of a book about Hegel; titles about family devotional practices; a life of David’s son Absalom; an interesting titled book, Good–Better–Best; or, The Three Ways of Making a Happy World.

James Waddell was born to Archibald and Janetta (Waddell) Alexander in Louisa County, Virginia, March 13, 1804. His ancestry provided direction for who he would become. He was named for his mother’s father, James Waddell, a native of Ireland who grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania and was schooled by Samuel Finley at Nottingham. Waddell was ordained by the Presbytery of Hanover and for much of his forty-years ministry served churches in the Shenandoah Valley and in later life lost his vision from cataracts. However, James Waddell continued to prepare sermons with the help of family members earning him the designation “The Blind Preacher of Virginia.” James’s father Archibald Alexander was from the Shenandoah Valley and ministered in Virginia and Philadelphia before becoming the organizing professor of the Presbyterian theological seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, 1812. If there is such a thing as having ministry in the blood, surely wee James had sanctified DNA from both parents.

After completing studies at the college in Princeton in 1820, he attended Princeton Seminary but did not complete the program, he instead studied about two years ending in 1824. Surely his failure to complete all the required classes was more than made up for by family chats with his founding professor father. From 1824 to 1825 he was a tutor at the college. His first ministry following ordination by Hanover Presbytery was in the Presbyterian Church, Charlotte Court House, Virginia, which began with a term as the stated supply and continued with a brief tenure as the installed pastor. He moved to Trenton, New Jersey, to serve the Presbyterian church, 1829-1832, then was editor of The Presbyterian, 1832-1833. His longest single service was as the Professor of Rhetoric and Latin Language and Literature in the College of New Jersey, 1833-1844.

Because of a renewed desire for pastoral ministry, he accepted a call in 1844 to the Duane Street Church in New York City which ended in 1849. Upon leaving New York he returned to Princeton to serve briefly as the Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government in the seminary. However, he yearned to serve a congregation again, so he accepted a call that took him back to New York to become minister of the Fifth Avenue and Nineteenth Street Church. Hoping to relieve an illness, Dr. Alexander was granted leave from his church to rest and recuperate in Red Sweet Springs, Virginia, but he died, July 31, 1859, at the age of only fifty-five years. His body was returned to Princeton and buried near his father. James Waddell Alexander was honored during his lifetime with the Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) by both Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, 1843, and Harvard University, 1854. See the newspaper report about Alexander’s funeral at the end of this post.

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