Frederick Adolphus Packard, LL.D. (1829-1867)
On September 26, 1794, Frederick Adolphus Packard was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts to a pastor and his wife, both of whom were of Puritan descent. Packard graduated with honors from Harvard in 1814 and became both a lawyer and the editor of The Hampshire Federalist, which later became The Springfield Republican. When he was chosen to be a delegate to the anniversary of the American Sunday-School Union, he so impressed the group, that he was offered the position of editor of their publications. Though it meant taking a lower salary and giving up the prestige associated with his career as a lawyer, in addition to moving his family to a new city, he accepted. Edwin Wilbur Rice claims that “More than to any other one man the shaping of the early literature of the American Sunday-School Union was due to Frederick A. Packard.1 He personally examined most of the Union’s publications and even created several himself. His own works included The Teacher Taught, The Teacher Training, The Union Bible Dictionary, The Higher Rock, and Life of Robert Owen.
John Seely Hart, LL.D. (1810-1877)
John Seely Hart was born on January 28, 1810 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 1830, he graduated from Princeton College. His various positions apart from being editor of periodicals at the Union included professor of ancient languages and then of rhetoric, both at Princeton, principal of Philadelphia High School and of New Jersey Normal School, and editor of Common School Journal and Sartain’s Magazine.His own works include a treatise on rhetoric, Thoughts on Sabbath-Schools, and Sunday-School Idea. Though he was only editor of periodicals for the Union from 1858-1860, he became proprietor of The Sunday-School Times when it became a private publication.
Richard Newton, D.D. (1813-1887)
Though he was born in Liverpool, England in 1813, Richard Newton was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and then served as an Episcopal rector in Philadelphia. In addition to thirty volumes of children’s sermons, he wrote Illustrated Rambles in Bible Lands, Five-Minute Talks for the Young, Heroes of the Early Church, Heroes of the Reformation, and The Life of Jesus Christ.He also served as Editor of Periodicals from 1867-1877.
Samuel Austin Allibone, LL.D. (1816-1889)
Samuel Austin Allibone was born in Philadelphia in 1816, and served as book editor of the Union from 1868 until 1879. In addition to editing many of the Union’s works, he wrote “question books” on the Gospels and Acts, Index to the New Testament, Union Bible Companion, and Dictionary of Authors, a three volume, 3000 page bibliography. He also classified the Union works.
Edwin Wilbur Rice, The Sunday-school movement, 1780-1917, and the American Sunday-School Union, 1817-1917, p.174.