- AARON LUCIUS CHAPIN, first President of Beloit College, was
born in Hartford, Conn.,
- Feb. 4, 1817. His ancestors on the side of both father and
mother were citizens of Connecticut, and were persons of robust
intelligence and character. He received his academic education
in the Hartford Grammar School and at Yale College, graduating
at the latter institution in 1837. Among the members of his class
were several gentlemen of national reputation: Rev. A. L. STONE,
D.D., Hon. Jeremiah EVARTS, Chief Justice Morrison R. WAITE and
Prof. Benjamin SILLIMAN are of the number. During the year subsequent
to his leaving college he was engaged in teaching in a family
school in Baltimore, Md., and from 1838 to 1843 was a professor
in the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. He studied
theology while there engaged, and received his diploma at Union
Theological Seminary of New York, in 1842.
- The Western States were at this time opening new fields for
enterprise, not only in the pursuits of
- ordinary industry, but to the Christian ministry and academicals
instruction. Mr. CHAPIN, under the appointment of the American
Home Missionary Society, removed to 1844 to Milwaukee, Wis.,
where he became Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. Here
he remained six years. His pastorate in Milwaukee is spoken of
as one of great thoroughness and efficiently, and his friendship
in that city is affectionately cherished by not a few who were
cognizant of his early ministry.
- In February of 1850, Dr. CHAPIN was called from Milwaukee
to Beloit College as its first
- President, and was inaugurated into the duties of that office
July 24, of the same year. Rev. Jackson J. BUSHNELL and Rev.
Joseph EMERSON, D.D., had just become professors of the new institution,
and to Dr. CHAPIN, in conjunction with these two first professors,
are in a large measure due the wise principles and methods by
which its administration has been rendered so eminently successful
in the training of men.
- Dr. CHAPIN was married to Miss Martha COLTON, of Lenox, Mass,
Aug. 23, 1843. After
- her death he married as his second wife Miss Fannie L. COLT,
of New London, Conn., August 26, 1861. He is father of six children;
one of them, Elizabeth C., now the wife of Rev Henry D. PORTER,
M.D., is at present a missionary of the American Board in Paung-Chuang,
China. The other remaining children are contributing to their
father's later years the graces of a happy and honorable home.
- The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on Mr. CHAPIN
by Williams College in 1853,
- and that of Doctor of Laws by the University of New York
in 1882. In 1865, during a brief period of physical exhaustion,
he passed several months in Europe. Again, in 1883, he visited
the old world as member of a committee sent by the American Board
to the Turkish mission for the purpose of adjusting certain differences
between the American churches and the missionaries of the Board.
He has served the Board of Missions as one of its corporate members
for many years. In 1884 he was appointed to preach the annual
sermon. For many years he has also been Director of the American
Home Missionary Society, one of the Vice-Presidents of the American
Missionary Association, President of the Board of Trustees of
the State of the Chicago Theological Seminary. He was one of
the Board of Examiners at the U.S. Naval School at Annapolis
in 1872, and occupied the same position at West Point in 1873.
- In the midst of a busy life Dr. CHAPIN has found little leisure
for the protracted labor of literary
- authorship. He has given to the press a few occasional sermons,
addresses and reviews. In 1878 an education of "Wayland's
Political Economy" was issued under his supervision, in
which the original work was recast and partly re-written by him.
This revision has been adopted as a text-book in several schools
and colleges, and is spoken of with honor.
- Dr. CHAPIN resigned the presidency of the college at the
annual commencement in 1886, his
- long labors causing him to feel the pressure of advancing
years. He retains, however, for instruction the department of
civil polity, which, with that of history, from the beginning
has been attached to that of the President. For the past few
months our venerable teacher has been obliged to intermit the
duties of the recitation room, by reason of physical infirmity.
We trust that rest in the quiet of his home will bring back for
now a few remaining years something of earlier vigor. We may
confidently expect it, if the unswerving love in which he is
cherished can avail. A mind of remarkable poise and a heart growing
through all these years in consecration to the good of men, with
a physical frame eminently qualified for exacting labor, have
all been given freely. It is our hope that the results of his
life in the life of the college and of its sons, and in the direct
contribution he has made to the life of the commonwealth and
the American church, may be to him a crown of joy, as it is manifestly
a crown of honor, in all the days that remain to him.
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 879-881.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|