Name Edward Neill Role Author | Education Amherst College | |
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Died 1893, Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States Books The history of Minnesot, History of the Virginia Company, The Founders of Maryla, The Founders of Maryla, Sieur de la Verendrye and His S | ||
Edward Duffield Neill (1823–1893) was an American author and educator.
Neill was born in Philadelphia. After studying at the University of Pennsylvania for some time, he enrolled at Amherst College and graduated from Amherst in 1842, then studied theology at Andover. After ordination as a Presbyterian minister, he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1848 where he became pastor of the First Presbyterian church. He also worked as Superintendent of Public Instruction for the Territory in 1851–53, and as chancellor of the State university in 1858–61.
During the Civil War he served in the army as a hospital chaplain from 1861–64. He worked for Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, who in 1869 nominated him United States Commissioner of Education to replace Henry Barnard, however, President Grant appointed him Consul to Dublin in 1869.
He returned to the United States in 1870, and served as the president of Macalester College in St. Paul in 1873–74, thenceforth as professor of history and literature.
He wrote a large number of historical books, mostly of the Colonial period. The most important are: