“B” is for Boyce, James Pettigru (1827-1888

“B” is for Boyce, James Pettigru (1827-1888). Minister, educator. A native of Charleston, Boyce graduated from Brown University and attended Princeton Theological Seminary.  In 1851 he became a pastor at the Baptist Church in Columbia. Boyce soon returned to the academy, accepting a position at Furman. In1855 he convinced the South Carolina Baptist Convention to support the creation of a separate Baptist seminary to be located in Greenville. With support from the Southern Baptist Convention, the institution opened in 1859 as the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Boyce served as its first president. After the Civil War he returned to the seminary and attempted to place it on a sound financial footing. In 1872 James Pettigru Boyce was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a position he held until 1879 and again in 1888.