Elisha Yale

Reverend Elisha Yale (1780 – 1853) was an American clergyman and pastor, first minister of the Congregational church of Gloversville, New York.

He founded the Kingsborough Academy, now the Fulton County Historical Society and Museum, and published several works on religion.

[2][3][4] His uncle was Captain Josiah Yale, a representative in the city's legislature, a selectman, and a member of the Congregational church.

Calvin Yale of Martinsburg, New York, who married Eliza Robbins, a granddaughter of Mayor Peter Curtis, who was involved with the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War.

[4] He was then licensed to preach the gospel by the North Association of Hartford County, and in the same year, arrived at Kingsboro, New York, then a part of Johnstown.

[10] He was a man of much prominence in the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches of New England and New York, and became also a trustee of Union College.

Yale was the first itinerant minister in the southern Adirondack Trail, and founded Kingsborough Academy, which originally trained pastors and missionaries, but now houses the Fulton County Historical Society and Museum.

[10] In 1853, he published "A Select Verse System" for the use of individuals and the schools of Rochester, "A Review of a Pastorate of Forty Eight Years" and "Helps to Cultivate the Conscience", among others.

[23] A large statue of him by sculptor Henry Augustus Lukeman was erected in Gloversville, Kingsboro Historic District, New York.

[9] The statue's unveiling was done by Dr. Reid, pastor of the Fremont Street Methodist Church, and General Richard Montgomery Chapter, of the Sons of the American Revolution.