Byron Sunderland

Byron Sunderland
Between 1870 and 1880
Born	(1819-11-22)November 22, 1819 Shoreham, Vermont, U.S.
Died	June 30, 1901(1901-06-30) (aged 81) Catskill, New York, U.S.
Cause of death	Cerebral embolism
Occupation	Presbyterian minister

Byron Sunderland (November 22, 1819 – June 30, 1901) was an American Presbyterian minister, author, and Chaplain of the United States Senate during the American Civil War.

Sunderland was born on November 22, 1819, to Asa and Olive (Wolcott) Sunderland in the town of Shoreham, Vermont. Both of his grandfathers served in the American Revolutionary War. After spending his childhood in Shoreham, he attended Middlebury College a few miles away and graduated from there in 1838, later receiving a D.D. in 1855 from the same school. He taught for some time before attending the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

In 1843, Sunderland became pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Batavia, New York. By 1851 he had become pastor-elect of the Park Presbyterian Church in Syracuse, New York before being called to the First Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. In 1853, Sunderland began a distinguished 45-year tenure as senior pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Washington. In 1857, he began to preach in favor of the abolition of slavery, a courageous act in a city that was essentially a conservative Southern town. A further courageous act was allowing Frederick Douglass to preach from the pulpit in 1866.

Sunderland was appointed to the office of Chaplain of the Senate in 1861, serving for three years. He resigned in 1864 to accept the post of Pastor of the American Chapel in Paris, France. He served in that position from September 1864 until October 1865, when he returned to Washington to resume his duties as Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. Following his return to Washington, he also served several terms as chaplain of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. He served as the president of Howard University from 1867 to 1869, and on the first board of directors of Gallaudet College in Washington. He retired from his pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church in Washington in 1898, becoming pastor emeritus for life.