KENT, Aratus, clergyman, born in Suffield, Connecticut, 15 January, 1794; died in Galena, Illinois, 8 November, 1869. He was graduated at Yale in 1816, and he was licensed to preach in 1820. In 1822-'3 he studied in Princeton theological seminary and in 1825 was ordained pastor of a church in Lockport, New York, which charge he held till 1828. He then applied to the Home missionary society for "a place so hard that no one else would take it," and in 1829 was sent to the Galena, Illinois, lead-mines, where he established a Sabbath school and a day school. He organized the first Presbyterian church in Galena in 1831, and was its pastor till 1848, when he became agent for the Home missionary society in northern Illinois, serving till 1868. He was one of the founders of Beloit college and of Rockford female seminary, and although he had a small salary gave nearly $7,000 to the church.