Macalester College - Quid Nunc Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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The Macalester Mic-Mae E RVN' I'lJXY XRD D. NICILT.. D, 11. cItQ'C17

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The Macalester Mic-iliac. EDWARD D. NEILL, D. D. In the history of the institutions of higher learning in America no names are surrounded with more glamour or remembered with more reverence and gratitude than those of their founders. The East especially is fortunate in being able to point to men like John Harvard and Elihu Yale for the establishment of institu- tions of this kind. Though Macalester has not, like the colleges of the East, the prestige that comes with years, it has as great a right to think with pride of the one through whom it was called into existence, a man who, by general consent, was one of the noblest and most broadly cultured gentlemen of this state. Rev. Edward Duffield Neill, D. D., was born in Philadelphia, August Q, 1823. After completing the sophomore year at the Uni- versity iof Pennsylvania, he entered Amherst College, where he received the degree of A. B., in 1842. He then went to Andover Theological Seminary, where he spent one year, after which he completed his theological studies under the direction of Rev. Al- bert Iiarnes and Rev. Thomas Brainerd of his native city. Imbued with the missionary spirit, he came VVest and was licensed in 1847 by the presbytery of Galena, Illinois. In 1849 he arrived at St. Paul, and entered upon his work with great enthusi- asm. In November of that year he organized the first Presby- terian church of the city. Between 1851 and 1854 he was territorial superintendent of public instruction. Later he organized the House of Hope Church. He had much to do with the establishment of the State University and was its first chancellor. In 1861 he en- tered the army as chaplain of the First Minnesota regiment and took an honorable part in the battles of Bull Run, Fair Oaks and Mal- vern Hill. While serving as hospital chaplain in the military hospi- tal in Philadephia, he was appointed to a secretaryship under Presi- dent Lincoln. This position he held until after President Grantis inauguration, when he was appointed consul to Dublin. Resigning in 1870, he returned to Minnesota and entered enthusiastically upon P II g 0 16

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The lllclcalesfcr Mic-Mac. the Work of building up a college after the New England type. He secured from his friend, Charles Macalester, of Philadelphia, a valuable property in Minneapolis, and with this laid the foundation of Macalester College. He was its first president and after his resignation in 1884 and until his death, September 26, 1893, held the position of professor of history, literature and political science. He was a profound student of'history and the author of the stand- ard history of Minnesota, also of many very valuable historical monographs. Dr. Neill was a man of fme personal appearance, of elegant bearing and of scholarly inclination. He was a manly man, pos- sessed of a high sense of honor, of the strongest perseverance and of Firm convictions. Only those who have been in intimate connec- tion with Macalester from its inception can fully realize the magni- tude of his efforts and of his heroic self-sacrifice in behalf of its cause. For the advancement of this Christian College he gave not only the valuable library, which now bears his name, not only his whole fortune, and he might have been a millionaire, but he gave that which is of more lasting value, he gave a life of wide reaching influence, of unequaled devotion. Page 18