Norfolk County MA Archives Biographies.....Kimball, Caleb 1798 - 1879
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Author: E. O. Jameson (1886)

REV. CALEB KIMBALL.

   CALEB KIMBALL, son of Caleb and Elizabeth (Hammond) Kimball, was born June 3,
1798, in Ipswich, Mass. His father died when he was young, and at fourteen years
of age he was apprenticed to a blacksmith in a neighboring town, where he
remained until he was twenty-one years old. At the age of nineteen he became a
Christian, with a strong desire to preach the Gospel. Failing in his effort to
purchase his remaining time from his master, he toiled on till he was
twenty-one, and the second day after started for Phillips Academy, Andover, to
prepare for college. This was in 1S19. He entered Dartmouth College in 1S22, and
graduated in 1826. In his preparatory course he was aided by the American
Education Society, which aid he refunded after entering the ministry. In college
his patron was a gentleman of his native town, who sought him out, and paid all
his bills. In the autumn of 1S26 he entered the Theological Seminary in Andover.
Near the close of his first year there his eyes began to fail from a disease of
the retina, attended with severe pain, and in the beginning of the second year,
he was entirely disabled for study. In December, 1827, he entered the Eye and
Ear Infirmary, Boston, where he remained six months, and obtained some relief.
He returned to Ipswich, where he was confined to his room more than two years,
and became totally blind. At the close of this period his eyes were free from
suffering, and his heart so set on the work of the ministry, that he ventured to
take a license to preach, and labored considerably in the revivals of 1831.
Being too feeble to take charge of a parish, he was ordained in 1832, and under
commission from the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society he labored in
Gloucester Harbor, South Dennis, and Harwich, Mass. In the latter place he
preached two years. Then his eyes again failed. He remained in Harwich four
years, confined to a dark room and suffering intense pain. These four years of
physical suffering were years of great spiritual enjoyment, and he spoke of them
afterwards as among the shortest and happiest of his life. Then he returned to
Ipswich, stopping in Boston three months at the Eye and Ear Infirmary, where he
learned to write on the system of the blind, an invaluable blessing to him, as
it enabled him to do his own writing. He soon began to labor again in revivals
of religion, and some time after went to Portland, Me., to assist the Rev. Dr.
Chickering in the great revival with which that city was blessed at that time.
There he labored three months, amidst scenes of the deepest interest. On his
return home, he stopped to preach one Sabbath at Biddeford. At the request of
the people he consented to remain three months, if his health permitted, and he
staid two years. On returning to Ipswich, at the request of a neighboring
minister, he commenced writing and publishing some small books on religious
subjects. With these he canvassed about half of New England, selling over one
hundred and twenty thousand. In 1854 he married and came to Medway for a
permanent home. Soon his health again failed, and he spent another year in a
dark room. The last eleven years of his life he seldom left home. He died June
19, 1879. Mrs. Kimball survives him and resides in Medway.


Additional Comments:
THE BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT PERSONS,
AND
The Genealogical Records
OF
MANY EARLY AND OTHER FAMILIES
IN
MEDWAY, MASS. 1713-1886.
Illustrated
WITH NUMEROUS STEEL AND WOOD ENGRAVINGS.
BY
E. O. JAMESON,
THE AUTHOR OK "THE COGSWELLS IN AMERICA," "THE HISTORY OF MEDWAY, MASS." ETC.
MILLIS, MASS. 1886.

Copyright, 1886.
E. O. JAMESON, MILLIS, MASS.
All Rights Reserved.

J. A. & R. A. REID, PRINTERS, PROVIDENCE, R. I.


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