On this episode of five minutes in church history, let's talk about a plaque.

This is a plaque that commemorates an event in 1812.

Now, of course, in the United States we had, the war of 181212 but that's not what this is about.

Well let me just read to you what the plaque says.

It reads

Alexander Hall

Cornerstone Laid on September 26, 1815, named to honor the Reverend Archibald

Alexander, first professor of the seminary, 1812 to 1851.

And then the plaque says across the bottom,

this is the first structure built for use as a seminary by the Presbyterian Church.

While it was dedicated to Archibald Alexander,

there were actually three men who contributed to the founding of Princeton Theological Seminary.

The first was the aforementioned Archibald Alexander.

He was joined by Ash Bell Green and also Samuel Miller. And this is their story.

Ash Bell Green was born in 1762. He fought in the Revolutionary War and then he studied under John Witherspoon who was president of course of

Princeton University and a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a Presbyterian minister. He was the only ordained minister to

affix his signature to the Declaration of Independence and Ash Bell Green was one of his students.

From the years 1812 to 1822 for a decade,

Ashbel Green himself served

as the president of Princeton University.

Just as a side note, he had one slave and he freed her.

Her name was Becky Stockton.

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