SIMPSON, Matthew, American Methodist bishop and educator : b. Cadiz, Ohio, 21 June 1811; d. Philadelphia, Pa., 18 June 1884. He studied medicine and was admitted to its prac tice in 1833, but in 1834 closed his office and set out as a Methodist itinerant, filling 33 ap pointments in six weeks' tours. In 1835 he be came pastor of the Liberty Street Church, of Pittsburgh, Pa., and in 1837 vice-president of Allegheny College (Meadville, Pa.), and professor there of natural science. He was elected, in 1839, first president of Indiana As bury (the present De Pauw) University and undertook his work with three professors and 11 students in the four rooms of a hired build ing. After a successful administration, he re signed in 1858, and became editor of the West ern Christian Advocate, official organ of his Church for the West. In this journal the editor took decided positions on slavery and other subjects of current discussion. He was elected bishop in 1852; and in 1857, when a delegate to the World's Evangelical Alliance at Berlin, preached in the Garnisonkirche, that being the first instance in which an established church in Prussia had been opened to an Eng lish-speaking Evangelical, During the Civil War he was a frequent adviser of President Lincoln. In 1881 he delivered the opening ad
dress at the Ecumenical Methodist Conference in London. He was best known for his elo quence, and published a volume of