Abigail Hazard Ralston

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Abigail Hazard Ralston, youngest of the five daughters of Robert and Sarah (nee Clarkson) Ralston, was born July 31, 1801, and, May 11, 1830, married Rev. John Williams Proudfit, D. D., being the second of the Ralston sisters to become the wife of an eminent clergyman. Dr. Proudfit, who was born September 22, 1803, was a son of Rev. Alexander Mon?rief Proudfit, D. D., by his wife, Susan Williams. The elder Dr. Proudfit was a distinguished theologian who, after graduating from Columbia College in 1792, studied for the ministry under the Rev. Dr. John Henry Livingston, and , for forty-one years, 1794-1835, filled the pulpit of the Associate Reformed Church, Salem, New York. From 1835 to 1841 he was Secretary of the New York Colonization Society. For a short period, during his pastorate at Salem, he was Professor of Pastoral Theology in the Associate Reformed Seminary, at Newburgh, New York. Besides numerous sermons and addresses published by him, he was the author of "Theological Works," in four volumes, issued in 1815, and of a work on the "Parable," published in 1820. He was born November 10, 1770, and died November 23, 18848. The younger Dr. Proudfit graduated from Union College in 1823, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1824. From 1827 to 1838 he was pastor of the Reformed Church at Newburyport, Massachusetts. From 1838 To 1840 he was professor of Latin at the University of New York.

From 1840 to 1864 he occupied the chair of Greek, at Rutgers College.

He was appointed Hospital Chaplain of Volunteers, United States Army, June 20, 1862, and served until honorably mustered out, August 21, 1865 at the close of the war. The degree of D. D. was given him by Union College in 1841. He published several sermons, was the author of "Man's Twofold Life" (1862), and edited "A Comedy of Plautus, with English Notes" (1843). The death of Dr. Proudfit occurred March 9, 1870; that of his widow, nee Ralston, four years later, June ?, 1874. They were the parents of two children, to wit: Robert Ralston and Alexander, both of whom became clergymen.