Silas Bailey

Silas Bailey
BornJune 12, 1809 Edit this on Wikidata
Sterling Edit this on Wikidata
DiedJune 30, 1874 Edit this on Wikidata
Paris Edit this on Wikidata

Silas Bailey (June 12, 1809 – June 30, 1874) was an American Baptist minister and educator. He was the first headmaster of the Worcester Academy, the second president of Franklin College, and the third president of Denison University.

Early life

Silas Bailey was born on June 12, 1809 in Sterling, Massachusetts. He prepared for college at the Leicester Academy. He chose to attend Brown University due to his admiration for its president, Francis Wayland.

Career

Bailey graduated from Brown in 1834 and became the first headmaster of the Worcester County Manual Labor High School, later known as the Worcester Academy. He resigned in 1838 to enter the ministry. After studying at the Newton Theological Institution, he became a pastor at the Baptist church in East Thompson, Connecticut. From 1842 to 1845, he was an agent of the church's missionary unit in New York. He then served as a pastor in Westborough, Massachusetts.

On November 12, 1846, Bailey was elected president of Granville College (later known as Dennison University) in Granville, Ohio. He accepted the position in January 1847 and assumed the presidency that fall. Due to the institution's poor financial condition, Bailey recommended moving it to a more prosperous community. In 1852, the college's board of trustees voted to remain in Granville and Bailey resigned. He then became president of the Baptist college at Franklin, Indiana, where he remained for ten years. After filling a pastorate at Lafayette, Indiana for three years he accepted the professorship of theology at Kalamazoo College, Michigan. He retired in 1869 and returned to Lafayette.

Personal life and death

Bailey married twice. His first wife, Mary A. Goddard of Grafton, Massachusetts, died in 1873. His second wife, Rosa H. Adams, was a Baptist missionary. He had no children.

Bailey traveled to Syria in 1873. He died on June 30, 1874 in Paris while on his return trip. He bequeathed his library to Franklin College.

References

  1. ↑ Franklin College (Franklin, Ind ) (1921). The almanack. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Franklin, Ind. : Franklin College. pp. 174–5.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ward, George Otis (1918). The Worcester Academy: Its Locations and Its Principals, 1834-1882. Davis Press. pp. 21–23. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
  3. ↑ Shepardson, Francis Wayland (1931). Denison University, 1831-1931: A centennial history. Granville Times and Pub. Co. p. 63.
  4. ↑ "The "Great Removal Issue"". The Historical Times. XIX (4). December 2005. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
  5. ↑ "Surrogate's Court". Flushing Daily Times. April 10, 1875. Retrieved 17 September 2026.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "BAILEY, Silas" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.