Introduction

Biography

Colver en­tered the Bap­tist min­is­try in 1836, and served pas­tor­ates in Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1839); South Ab­ing­don, Mas­sa­chu­setts (1852); De­troit, Mi­chi­gan; Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio; and Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois (1861).

He con­trib­ut­ed 17 hymns to Ban­yard’s Chris­tian Me­lo­dist (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: 1848).

While in Cin­cin­na­ti, he re­ceived a Doctor of Di­vi­ni­ty degree from De­ni­son Uni­ver­si­ty. In Chi­ca­go, he was in­vit­ed to be­come a pro­fes­sor of doc­trin­al theo­lo­gy in the se­mi­na­ry be­ing or­gan­ized there.

From 1867–70, Col­ver was pre­si­dent of the Freed­man’s In­sti­tute in Rich­mond, Vir­gin­ia.

In 1867, he head­ed the Rich­mond cam­pus of the Na­tion­al Theo­lo­gic­al In­sti­tute of Wash­ing­ton, DC, cre­at­ed by the Am­eri­can Bap­tist Home Mis­sion So­ci­ety.

He died short­ly there­af­ter, and the school was re­named the Col­ver In­sti­tute in his hon­or. It be­came part of Vir­gin­ia Un­ion Uni­ver­si­ty in 1899.