Jeremiah Lanphier  Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier (September 3, 1809 – December 26, 1898) was an American lay missionary in New York City, popularly regarded as having been instrumental in instigating the American religious revival of 1857–58. Jeremiah Lanphier was born in Coxsackie, New York, the son of Samuel F. Lanphier, a farmer and currier, and Jane Ross Lanphier, whose parents had emigrated from Holland. At sixteen, Lanphier apprenticed as a tailor in Albany and later also studied music there under one George Andrews. In 1833, Lanphier and Andrews became partners as cloth merchants in Lower Manhattan. They entered a highly competitive market for ready-made clothing, and after extending credit in an attempt to attract customers, they went bankrupt in the spring of 1842. While Lanphier worked as a cloth merchant, he also joined the choir at Broadway Tabernacle (a church organized by Lewis Tappan for revivalist Charles Grandison Finney), where Lanphier became an evangelical Christian. He then joined the choir at Market Street Church, pastored by noted Presbyterian clergyman Theodore L. Cuyler, and later the choir at the Pearl Street Presbyterian Church, where he made many friends and took an active interest in the work of the church. During the 1850s, prosperous churches with wealthy congregants moved uptown to more fashionable neighborhoods. Pearl Street Church closed in 1853, and Lanphier joined Duane Street Presbyterian Church, pastored by theologian and advocate of religious revival James Waddel Alexander. Duane Street Church had itself moved northward twice, although Lanphier continued to live in lower Manhattan where the number of unchurched residents increased. When a member of the consistory of the nearby North Dutch Church (with an entrance on Fulton Street) offered Lanphier a position as lay missionary, Lamphier closed his business and began his work for the church on July 1, 1857. Although Lanphier had no theological training, he was a remarkably good candidate for such a ministry. He never married, and he had no children. A contemporary described him as "tall, well made, with a remarkably pleasant, benevolent face; affectionate in his disposition and manner, possessed of indomitable energy and perseverance, having good musical attainments; gifted in prayer and exhortation to a remarkable degree; modest in his demeanor, ardent in his piety, sound in his judgment; having good common sense, a thorough knowledge of human nature, and those traits of character that make him a welcome guest in any house".