MacMaster, E. D. (Erasmus Darwin), 1806-1866

Erasmus D. MacMaster was born in Mercer Pennsylvania on February 4, 1806. He earned an A.B. from Union College, Chicago, Illinois in 1827. MacMaster was licensed by the Reformed Presbytery of New York on June 16, 1829, and ministered in Ballston N.Y. from 1831 to 1838. After serving as President of Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana from 1838 to 1845, MacMaster accepted the presidency of Miami University. His Miami tenure was plagued by smallpox and cholera outbreaks and conflicts with the student body culminating in the so-called "Snowball Rebellion" in January 1848. By the time of MacMaster's departure from Miami in 1849, enrollment had dwindled to sixty-eight students and the University faced major financial problems. MacMaster went on the serve on the faculty of the New Albany, Indiana and Theological Seminary in New Albany. At the time of his death on December 10, 1866, MacMaster was Professor of Theology at Northwestern Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.

From the guide to the Erasmus D. MacMaster Collection, 1838-1968, 1844-1890, (Miami University)