Jonathan Edwards was born on Oct. 5, 1703, in East Windsor, Conn., the brother of ten girls.

Edwards graduated from Yale College in 1720 and remained there for two more years studying theology. He then spent a short time as a pastor in New York, before returning to Yale for a position as a tutor.

Edwards took a position as an associate pastor in Northampton, Mass., with his mother's father, Solomon Stoddard. After Stoddard' s death in 1729, Edwards remained there until 1750. From 1751 until 1757 he served a congregation at Stockbridge, Mass., and then moved on to become president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). He had just taken up his duties there when he caught smallpox and died on March 22, 1758.