Rev. John Holmes Agnew, D. D., was born in Gettysburg, Pa., May 9th, 1804. He graduated at Dickinson College, under the presidency of the distinguished Dr. John Mason, and taught the Grammar School in Carlisle for some time after leaving the college.
Mr. Agnew pursued his theological studies in the seminary at Princeton, and was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Carlisle, April 11th, 1827. That same year he became pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Uniontown, Pa. In 1831 he was elected Professor of Languages in Washington College, Pa., which position he resigned in 1832. By this institution the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him in 1852. After leaving Washington he became connected with the German Reformed Institution at York, Pa., then a Professor in Marion College, Missouri, then he filled a similar position in Newark College, Delaware. Subsequently he was Professor of Ancient Languages in the University of Michigan, and after leaving this position took charge of Maplewood Female Seminary, Pittsfield, Mass. Dr. Agnew was editor of the Eclectic Magazine, the Biblical Repertory, a quarterly in the interest of the (then) New School branch of the Presbyterian Church, also of The Knickerbocker. He was the author of a small and valuable work on "The Sabbath," from the press of the Presbyterian Board of Publication, and assisted in the translation of Winer's Grammar of the New Testament. Dr. Agnew died October 12, 1865. One who knew him thoroughly thus succinctly delineated his character: "He was generous, benevolent, social, genial, gentlemanly, scholarly."