American Education Society

American Society for the Education of Pious Youth for the Gospel Ministry was organized in 1815 for the purpose of raising funds for college expenses of young men aiming to become Protestant clergymen.

In the early part of July 1815, a few individuals, including Congregational clergy affiliated with the Andover Theological Seminary,[4] in Boston, Massachusetts, having become convinced of the necessity of greatly increasing the number of well qualified Protestant ministers, determined to make a special effort to accomplish the object.

[5] In adopting a plan of organization, the founders of the Society aimed at establishing a system which should be simple and efficient, and which at the same time would admit of an easy extension over a wide territory.

With this view, a "General", or Parent Society was instituted, composed of those who were members for life at the time of the annual meeting in May 1826; and of such others as shall hereafter be elected into it by ballot.

[3] By the 1830s about a fourth of the American college students intending to become ministers were supported by the Society or by similar organizations operated by other Protestant denominations.

[7] From the start of their operations, the Directors felt it was their duty in selecting candidates for the patronage of the Society, to give the preference to those who desired obtaining a thorough preparation for the ministry.

[10] For the sake of greater facility, as well as safety, in managing the concerns of the institution, branch societies were formed in different states and sections of the country.

Each branch had, by the constitution, a board of directors, whose business it was to superintend that part of the general interest which was entrusted to its care by the parent society.