Stephen H. Tyng

Stephen Higginson Tyng (March 1, 1800 – September 3, 1885) was a leading clergyman of the evangelical party of the Episcopal Church. He recognized that a new urban ministry was needed in parts of New York City with growing numbers of immigrants. He instituted social service programs as well as altering church interiors to make people feel more welcome. Personal life and education Born March 1, 1800, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, to Dudley Atkins Tyng and Sarah Higginson (and the brother of sea captain, merchant, and memoirist Charles Tyng), Stephen Tyng attended Phillips Andover Academy and was graduated from Harvard University in 1817. It was there that Tyng had a strong conversion experience that led him to leave business to pursue the ministry. He then headed to Bristol, RI to study theology and prepare for ordination under Bishop Griswold. Later, the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Jefferson College of Philadelphia in 1832, and by Harvard University in 1851. Tyng married his first wife, Anne DeWolf Griswold (daughter of his mentor), in 1821. Together, they had four children: Anna Elizabeth, Dudley Atkins, Alexander Griswold, and Julia Griswold. She died on May 16, 1832, at 27 years of age and was buried in the churchyard of the Church of the Epiphany. He soon thereafter married Susan Wilson Mitchell in 1833. This marriage produced an additional four children: Thomas Mitchell, Stephen Higginson, Morris Ashurst, and Charles Rockland. It was his last son who wrote and published his biography "Record of the life and work of the Rev. Stephen Higginson Tyng, D.D. and history of St. George's Church, New York, to the close of his rectorship" in 1890. Dr. Tyng died on September 3, 1885, in Irvington-on-Hudson and is buried with his late wife and children at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.