David Simpson Klugh was born in Greenwood, South Carolina, in 1868. He attended Atlanta Baptist College (now Morehouse) from 1888 to 1890, and the seminary there from 1890 to 1892. He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1889. In 1897, he married Adella L. Plyman in Georgia. Klugh completed a master's degree at Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg (now Virginia University of Lynchburg), and attended Princeton Theological Seminary from 1906 to 1907. In 1909, Klugh was appointed minister of Immanuel Baptist Church in New Haven. According to the census, in 1910 Klugh, his wife, their children, and a nurse were living on Park Street. He attended Yale Divinity School as a “special” (or non-degree) student during the 1912-1913 academic year. In addition to Immanuel Baptist, Klugh was minister of churches in Greenwood and Vendery, South Carolina; Princeton, New Jersey; and Boston, Massachusetts. He was active with the National Baptist Convention. Klugh died in 1934 in Boston.