Alonzo Church

Background

Alonzo Church, the son of Reuben and Elizabeth (Whipple) Church, was born on April 09, 1793 near Brattleboro, Vermont, United States where his father was engaged in farming. His grandfather, Timothy Church, had fought in the French and Indian War and was a colonel in the Revolution, also taking an active part in the attempt of New York to secure control of Vermont. His father was a lieutenant in the Revolution.

Education

Alonzo was ambitious for an education and as soon as he could prepare for entry he was off to Middlebury College where he graduated in 1816. He helped himself through college by teaching at odd times and he learned to like such work.

Career

About 1816 Alonzo Church set out for Georgia. He was bent on teaching and soon appeared in Eatonton, Putnam County, where he became the head of an academy. As Church was afflicted with “pulmonary infirmity, ” he felt that he should make his home permanently in a warm climate. Hence he looked upon Georgia as his fixed abode. So great was his success both in teaching and in impressing himself upon the educational leaders of the state that in 1819 he was elected to teach mathematics in the University of Georgia at Athens. Undoubtedly another important element aided him in this promotion: he was genuinely religious and had in 1817 placed himself in the care of the Hopewell Presbytery.

This move recommended him to the Presbyterians, who now controlled the University and were largely to continue to do so until the Civil War.

In 1820 he was licensed to preach and four years later he was ordained an evangelist at Bethany Church in Greene County. At the time when he came to the University as professor of mathematics, Moses Waddel, another Presbyterian preacher and academy teacher, arrived as the new president. When Waddel left ten years later (1829), Church was his natural successor. By this time the Methodists and Baptists had become powerful enough and selfconscious enough to resent the control of the University by the Presbyterians; the latter especially made a bitter fight against Church solely because he was a Presbyterian. Nevertheless he was elected and for the next thirty years he molded and controlled one of the principal ante bellum Southern universities. Although founded in 1801 (chartered in 1785) the University had never been able to gain strength until Waddel had given it ten years of faithful service. With this basis Church built the University into an institution of great usefulness to Georgians as well as to the youth of surrounding states. He ruled with a firm will both trustees and faculty; he believed in a scrupulous attention to duties; and he held that whatever the rules required was a sacred obligation. His piercing black eyes, dark complexion, graceful and dignified carriage, together with a quick temper, marked him as a positive character.

In 1834 he became involved in a long and heated controversy with Stephen Olin, a classmate at Middlebury College, who had recently been a member of the faculty at the University. His most famous dispute was with John and Joseph LeConte, teachers at the University in the early fifties. The issues were varied and confusing but centered in the attempt of the LeConte brothers to remake the University in curriculum and organization along more modern lines. The fight resulted in the departure of the LeContes and the complete reorganization of the faculty in 1856 with Church reelected as president. Worn out and weak, Church informed the trustees in 1858 that he would resign the next year.

After his resignation he moved into the country near Athens to spend the last years of his life. He passed away in 1862 in an atmosphere tense with a civil conflict in which the sons and sons-in-law of this former New Englander were vigorously fighting on the side of the South.

Achievements

• Alonzo Church made the great contribution to the development of the University of Georgia. Under his direction, new campus buildings were erected and among his students there were several who became prominent southern leaders.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Introduction to Mathematical Logic

    (One of the pioneers of mathematical logic in the twentiet...)

  • The Calculi of Lambda Conversion. (AM-6), Volume 6 (Annals of Mathematics Studies)

    ( The description for this book, The Calculi of Lambda Co...)

  • Introduction To Mathematical Logic Vol 1

Religion

Alonzo Church was a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Connections

Alonzo Church was married to Sarah J. Trippe, the daughter of a Putnam County planter. His wife died in 1861.

Father:

Reuben Church

Mother:

Elizabeth (Whipple) Church

Spouse:

Sarah J. Trippe

Grandfather:

Timothy Church

References

• Dictionary of Early American Philosophers