Banks, Joseph

Banks, Joseph a minister of the Associate Church, son of Dr. John Banks, was born at Florida, N. Y., July 27, 1806. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1823, and was a student of theology under his father at the time of the latter's death, in 1826. He was licensed by the Associate Presbytery of Philadelphia, Oct. 1, 1828, and shortly after went South, and was ordained Oct. 15, 1831, by the Associate Presbytery of Carolina as pastor of Bethany and Sardis churches, S. C., and Pisgah and Nob Creek, N. C. He subsequently settled in the congregations of Northfield, Stow, and Springfield, O.; but, in consequence of feeble health, resigned his charge and accepted an appointment as chaplain in the Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, at Allegheny City. He was appointed missionary to the island of Trinidad, July 27, 1843, and labored in that field for eight years. On his return in 1851 he established a semi-monthly paper entitled The Friend of Missions. He died at his residence in Mercer, Pa., April 8, 1859. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, IX, 3, 53.