George Washington Bethune

Who was George Washington Bethune?

George Washington Bethune was a preacher-pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church.

Of Huguenot descent, his father was Divie Bethune, a highly successful merchant in New York. Originally a student at Columbia College of Columbia University, Bethune graduated in 1822 from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania and went on to study theology at Princeton University. He married Mary Williams in November, 1825.

In 1827, he was appointed Pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church, Rhinebeck, New York. In 1830, he moved to Utica, New York; in 1834 to Philadelphia; and in 1850 to Brooklyn Heights, NY. He was offered the chaplaincy of the U.S. Military Academy, the Chancellorship of New York University and the Provostship of University of Pennsylvania, all of which he declined.

He was an outspoken Democrat in politics, opposed to slavery but unsympathetic to abolitionism.

Due to his Calvinist ideas about the unsuitability of such a hobby for a clergyman, Bethune, an avid fisherman, worked anonymously on five of the US editions of Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler under the pseudonym The American Editor.

He also wrote many hymns, some of which are still used today.