St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-06


REV. E. D. NEILL-FIRsT PROTESTANT CLERGY
MAN WHO SETTLED IN ST. PAUL.
No one man has done more towards the
growth of Saint Paul, in religious, literary,
moral, and educational point of view, than
Rev. E. D. Neill No one mans life has
been more increasingly devoted to the public
interests, than Rev. E. D. Neill. No one man
alone has done so much towards elevating
public opinion and towards laying the foun-
dation for great city here, as Rev. E. D..
Neill History, when correctly written, will
give him great credit for his zeal and his
devotion to the public good.
WHEN BORN AND SOME OF HIS LIFE-woRK.
He was born in Philadelphia in 1923;
educated at Amherst college, Massachusetts,,
and at the University of Pennsylvania;
graduated in 1872 ordained Presbyterian
clergyman in 1913; went to Galena to per
form missionary work in 1847; came to st.
Paul in April, 1919; wrote one Of the edi-
torial paragraphs in the first issue of the
Saint Paul Pioneer; contracted for the cree
ton OF the first brick house north of Prairie
du Chen, for his dwelling, still standing on
Fourth street, opposite the Metropolitan, and
planted with his own hands, some of the
trees which now surround it; erected the first
Protestant church, and; as the Protestant
manual mentions, organized in November,
1S49, the First Presbyterian church in Min
nesota, which was burned and rebuilt
on the corner of Third and St.
Peter streets; organized the House of Hope,
in 1855, and became its pastor; was terri
torial superintendent of instruction in 1851,
and held the office for two years. State
Superintendent Burt, in his report to the
legislature of 1881, writes:
1.-THE territorial law of 1851, requiring
the governor TO appoint the superintendent
of schools, remained until 1860 on the stat
utes. In that year it was enacted, that the
Chancellor of the University, an officer then
required to be appointed by the board of
regents, should be eX-ctficio superintendent.
This act made Rev. E. D. Neil the first state
superintendent Of public instruction. In
the first state report, lie recommended the
township system, and the appointment of
county superintendent; and that the APP
portionment of school funds should be made
upon the number Of scholars attending the
district schools. Two of the early recon-
mcndatlons have been realized and the third is
yet to come" He organized and secured
the erection Of the Baldwin school in 1858;
in 1855, through his efforts, brought into
existence the college of Saint Paul, now Mac
alester college; took an active part in the
Historical society of Minnesota-might saw
he was the father of this institution-was sec
rotary from 1851 to 1861; was secretary of the
board of education; eX-offlcio superinten-
dent of schools for several years; chancellor
of the State university for two years; state
superintendent of public instruction three
years; in 1861, appointed chaplain in
the First regiment of Minnesota volunteers
and was on the field in the battles of Bull
Run, Fairoaks and Malvern, and served two
years; was hospital chaplain in 1864; was
one Of the private secretaries Of Lincoln and
johnson; in 1869 was appointed consul to
Dublin, in which capacity he continued two
years. He went abroad for the purpose of
having access to the great libraries of the
British museum and Dublin university, and
while there, Strahan IL Co., of London, pub
lished his ''English Colonization of Ameri-
car He has also written the ''Virginia
Company of London ''Threads of Colonial
History "Founders of Maryland" and the
Munsels, the old Albany publishers, have
just announced another work from his pen,
with the title of ''Virginia Vetusta.''
His works have been used and
commended by Gladstone and Bancroft and
are works of reference at Harvard and John
Hopkins university. He returned to st.
Paul in 1871, and became and is now presi-
dent of the Manchester college, but has re-
signed his position, to take effect when
successor enters upon his duties. In 1871
he withdrew from the Presbyterian church
and entered the Reformed Episcopal church;
has written an exceedingly interesting and
accurate history of Minnesota; the fifth edi-
ton published in 1888; performed the first
marriage in Ramsey county; built the first
brick dwelling in the city; lived for some
time at Minneapolis until the Manchester
college building there became a medical
college and hospital, when he returned to st.
Paul, where he now resides, experimenting
and building up Manchester college, located
midway the two cities, and acting as Presbyter
in charge of Calvary Reformed Episcopal
chapel, at the corner of Grand avenue and
Milton, a new enterprise of his projection.
Personal APPEARANCE OF MR.. NELL
Mr.. Neill is a well formed gentleman,
physically, ordinarily TALL with light com
pleXion, side whiskers, and has a pleasant,
courtly bearing. He not only has very
active brain, but is very active in his move
ments. He walks like a man on springs;
moves directly forward to the object which he
wishes to attain, and having attained his
object, is ready to take up another. He is a
remarkably industrious man, always either
writing something, or doing something ahead
of public sentiment. He is constantly in
advance of the world, and hence the world
is nearly out of breath trying to keep up with
him, and yet when he is fully comprehended,
he is great deal more prac-
teal than the public give him
credit for. He is an earnest man, an indie
pendent man, a self-reliant man, religious
man, a progressive man, an honest man,
benevolent man, a kind-hearted man, a good
man; man of letters, man of literature, a
man of research man ofthought; a pioneer
a worker; human telegraph, throwing out
scintillations of light: leader in civilization.
He has no conception of the value of money
as personally relates to himself or to his
family. He has several huge trunks full of
good deeds, but very few of the glittering,
golden dollars. He is extremely sensitive as
to points of honor, of true manhood, of prin-
ciple; and so he has toiled on over quarter
of a century, among the rough elements of
life, and is now browning the end of his
career with building up an institution that
will live long after the material man has been
dissolved and the real man has taken his
proper place among the beings of another
sphere.
HIS IRREGULARITIES.
AS speaker in the pulpit or on the ros-
trum, Mr. Neill is earnest, sincere, clear, pro-
gressive, argume1}tative. He appears to be
bundle of nerves, and when he talks to you,
he is constantly moving his feet, just as
rapidly as the intensity of his thoughts act
upon the nerve centres, and yet in another
sense he is not nervous, but earnest. He
scorns most disdainfully anything which
to him appears mean. He is thoroughly indie
pendent. He lives within himself. In per-
son he is straight, manly, with an intellectual