Northwestern Presidents

President

June 23, 1853 – Died in Office

Born:

August 3, 1819
Kortright, New York

Died:

October 21, 1854
Troy, New York

Education: Prepared at Cazenovia (NY) Seminary; B.A., Wesleyan University, 1839; D.D., Ohio Wesleyan University, 1851

Hinman was a Methodist clergyman who received his denomination’s license to preach at age 19. After graduation from Wesleyan University, Hinman served for seven years on the faculty—two of those as principal—of Newbury (Vermont) Seminary (1839-1846). In 1846 he became principal of the Wesleyan Seminary of Albion, Michigan. Wesleyan later became Albion College and Hinman is considered the first president of that school.

As a representative of the Michigan Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Hinman accepted appointment as a ministerial member of Northwestern’s Board of Trustees in 1851. His energy, piety and remarkable public speaking abilities made Hinman the unanimous choice of his fellow trustees to assume responsibilities as Northwestern’s first president.

Interior of Hinman House

Martha Morse Hinman

Hinman’s primary goals as president were to raise an endowment for the University and to make Northwestern the central Methodist-affiliated institution of the region. Hinman journeyed frequently across northern Illinois and the wider Midwest, then known as the Northwest, in pursuit of his goals. He spoke on behalf of the University to gatherings of Methodist clergy and was responsible for the sale of many perpetual scholarships, an early vehicle for fundraising. Although Hinman kept a home in Chicago, Northwestern’s founder John Evans credited him as instrumental in the selection of Evanston for the University’s location. Exhausted by his labors, Hinman took ill and died while traveling to meet his family in New York. He left behind a wife, Martha A. Morse Hinman, and three young children. Hinman is memorialized through Northwestern’s Hinman House residence and Evanston’s Hinman Avenue. The former Hinman Literary Society, the University’s first student organization, took its name in honor of President Hinman.