PLUMER, WILLIAM SWAN: Presbyterian; b. at Greersburg (now Darlington), Beaver Co., Pa., July 26, 1802; d. at Baltimore, Md., Oct. 22, 1880. He was educated at Washington College, Lexington, Va., where he graduated in 1825; and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1826; and was ordained in 1827.

After working in various fields he was pastor at Petersburg. Va. (1831-34), Richmond (1835-46), Baltimore (1847-54), and at Allegheny, Pa. (1855-1862), where he served at the same time as professor of didactic and pastoral theology in the Western Theological Seminary. He supplied the pulpit of Arch Street Church, Philadelphia (1862-65); was pastor at Pottsville, Pa. (1865-66); and professor in the theological seminary at Columbia, S. C. (1867-80). He possessed a singular impressiveness in the pulpit and a gift for teaching. His writings are practical and didactic and of an ultra-Calvinistic cast. He founded The Watchman of the South in 1837 and was sole editor, 1837-45. Some of his works are The Bible True and Infidelity Wicked (New York, 1848); The Saint and the Sinner (Philadelphia, 1851); The Grace of Christ (1853); The Law of God as Contained in the Ten Commandments (1864); Sermons for the People (1871); and Commentaries on Romans (1870), and on Hebrews (1872).