Introduction

Biography

Benjamin was the son of Smith Ag­new and Ma­ria Ster­rett, and hus­band of An­na Coch­ran.

He gra­du­at­ed from Wash­ing­ton Col­lege (now Wash­ing­ton and Jef­fer­son College), Wash­ing­ton, Penn­syl­van­ia, in 1854. He then at­tend­ed the West­ern Theo­lo­gic­al Sem­in­ary in Pitts­burgh, gra­du­at­ing with a Doc­tor­ate of Di­vi­ni­ty in 1857.

In 1858 he be­came pas­tor of the First Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Johns­town, Penn­syl­van­ia (where the fa­mous flood oc­curred three dec­ades lat­er).

During the Am­eri­can civ­il war, he was a chap­lain in the 6th Penn­syl­van­ia Vol­un­teer In­fan­try, a unit known as the Key­stone Zou­aves. He left ar­my ser­vice in 1862 and re­turned to Johns­town.

In 1867, he re­signed his pas­tor­ate and moved to Phil­adel­phia to serve as pas­tor of the West­min­ster Church at 58th and Ches­ter Avenue (1868–70), and the North Pres­by­ter­ian Church at 6th and Green Street (1870–82). In 1882, he be­came pas­tor of the East Lib­er­ty Church in Pitts­burgh, but re­turned to Phi­la­del­phia in 1884 to pas­tor the Beth­le­hem Church at Broad and Dia­mond Streets in Phi­la­del­phia, serv­ing un­til 1896.

He was hea­vi­ly in­volved with the Pres­by­ter­ian Church at large, serv­ing on a num­ber of boards and as a trustee to two different Pres­by­ter­ian colleges before re­tir­ing in 1912.