Chapin, Aaron L.

Born: 1817-02-06 Hartford, Connecticut

Died: 1892-07-22 Beloit, Wisconsin

Flourished: Beloit, Wisconsin

Aaron L. Chapin, educator, minister, and college president, studied at the Hartford Grammar School, graduated from Yale College in 1837, then taught school in Baltimore the following year. He moved to New York City where he was a professor at the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb from 1838 to 1843. In 1842, Chapin completed a course of study at Union Theological Seminary, then relocated to Milwaukee about 1843, where he served as minister of the First Presbyterian Church until 1849. He was a trustee for Beloit College from the first meeting of the trustees in 1845 and was subsequently appointed the first president of the institution. He filled this position from 1850 until 1886. In 1860, Chapin owned real and personal property valued at $19,000. He married first, Martha Colton in 1843 and second, Fannie (Fanny) L. Coit in 1861; both marriages produced children.

Edward D. Eaton, “Chapin, Aaron Lucius,” Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930), 4:12-13; A History of Beloit College and a Sketch of Aaron L. Chapin, D. D., LL. D. ([Milwaukee?]: n.p., 1893), esp. 6, 13, 21-23; Aaron Lucius Chapin, D.D., LL.D. Memorial Service held by the Alumni of Beloit College, in the College Chapel, July 20, 1893 (Chicago: P. F. Pettibone, [1893]), esp. 5-10; Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Academical Year ending in June, 1893 ([New Haven: Yale University, 1893]), 155-56; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Beloit, Rock County, WI, 415; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Beloit, Rock County, WI, 112; Gravestone, Oakwood Cemetery, Beloit, WI.