He was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia on August 7, 1821. He attended Denison University, Marietta College and Oberlin College where he graduated august, 1842. In 1848 he became president of Hillsdale College in Michigan where he served 28 years. He began with 20 students but the last 14 years of his presidency he average nearly 600. He was elected to the Michigan State Senate in 1856 and in 1858 Lieutenant Governor. He resigned the Presidency of Hillsdale College in 1869 and in 1870 became pastor of a Congregational church in Mansfield, Ohio. In 1875 he accepted an invitation to the Principal-ship of the Normal School in Indiana, Pennsylvania but resigned in 1876 to become Chancellor of the University of Nebraska. He was well-known for his exposing the infidelity of Rev. Henry Ward Breecher.