Ichabod Spencer

[1]: 14  His father, a farmer, died while Spencer was young,[1]: 11  and he thereafter moved to Granville, Washington County, New York, where he engaged in manual labor for something like a year.

[1]: 18  He considered a career in law, and spent some time studying for the bar, but ultimately decided to become a minister,[1]: 19  and was licensed as such in November, 1826.

[1]: 24 In May 1828, Spencer married Hannah Magoffin,[1]: 26  and in the summer of 1828, he accepted an offer to minister at the Congregational Church in Northampton, Massachusetts.

[1]: 28  There, Spencer gained distinction as a preacher,[1]: 34  and in the spring of 1832 he was solicited to move to the Second Presbyterian Congregation of Brooklyn,[1]: 35  where he was installed on March 23, 1832.

[1]: 35  Spencer remained in Brooklyn for the rest of his life, where he wrote extensively, and "published verbatim reports of pastoral conversations that other ministers could use as a guide".