Mercer County PAGenWeb

Robert Fleming Sample


Robert Fleming Sample  was born in the town of Corning, N. Y., Oct. 19, 1829.  [son of  John and Jane Wilson Sample, Grandson of  John and Mary McCormick Sample;  Great-grandson of Thomas McCormick  (2nd); Great-great grandson of Thomas McCormick (1st)].

After his mother's death in 1834, he was sent to school in Geneva, N. Y., and continued his studies in an academy at Milton, Pa., entering Jefferson College at Canonsburg, Pa., during the presidency of the Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, D. D., where he graduated with honor. During the last year of his theological course at Allegheny City, he was called to the First Presbyterian Church of Mercer, Pa., as successor to the Rev. Joseph T. Smith, D. D. His subsequent pastorates were in Bedford, Pa., Minneapolis, Minn., and New York City. His most important work was done in connection with the Westminster church of Minneapolis, where he ministered for nearly twenty years. The membership of the church had advanced to a thousand, and the congregation was worshipping in one of the finest church edifices in this country, when he resigned this interesting and beloved charge on account of ill-health, induced by overwork and the rigor of the climate. After a brief sojourn in the South, he accepted a call to the Westminster Church of New York city, where he still remains. In 1876 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Wooster University, of Ohio. Dr. Sample has been a trustee of Macalister College, a director of McCormick Seminary, a member of the Presbyterian Board of Publication, and is at present a member of the Board of Church Erection, and a Trustee of Lincoln University. He was Moderator of the Presbytery of New York during the protracted discussion of the revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and was the only member of a committee of twelve, appointed to frame a paper on that subject, who voted against the radical changes proposed and afterwards rejected by the General Assembly. He was also a member of the  prosecuting committee in the case of the Presbyterian Church against the Rev. C. A. Briggs, D. D., whose errors were condemned by the highest court of the church. He was a member of the Alliance, at Belfast, composed of delegates from all branches of the Presbyterian denomination throughout the world, and read one of the important papers before that body.

Dr. Sample is the author of "Beacon-Lights of the Reformation;" of the "Memoir of Rev. J. C. Thom;" of four anonymous books on "Christian Experience," and several hymns, incorporated in the hymnology of his own and other churches. He has also been a regular correspondent of "The Presbyterian" for nearly a third of a century; has written extensively of his travels in Europe and the East, and has furnished numerous articles for the leading magazines and reviews of this country. The Presbyterian Encyclopedia says of him: "Dr. Sample, as a preacher, is thoroughly evangelical, able, instructive, impressive; as a writer, he is graceful, vigorous and popular, and he wields a strong influence by his sound judgment earnest zeal and exemplary Christian character. He has a record of which any minister of the gospel might justly be proud."

Dr. Sample married, March 31, 1853, Nannie M. Bracken, of Cannonsburg, Pa. Had issue:

1. Mary E. Sample. B., July 31, 1854.
    M., J. B. Donaldson, D. D., Minneapolis, Minn., 1878
 2. Anna J. Sample.  B., Jan. 31, 1857.
3. Robert W. Sample.  B., Mar. 21, 1858.
4. John W. Sample.  B., June, 1861.
5. Henry B. Sample. B., Aug., 1863. D., 1868.
6. Lottie M. Sample. B., 1867. D., 1868.
7. Walter B. Sample. B., Oct. 21, 1869.

From Family Record and Biography of the McCormick Family, pages 156-158.


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