Daniel Read

Background

Daniel Read was born on June 24, 1805 on a farm near Marietta, Ohio. Both his parents, before their marriage, had come to this region from Massachusetts. His father, Ezra Read, was of old New England stock.

Education

Daniel attended the Cincinnati, Xenia, and Ohio University academies, and in 1820 entered Ohio University, where he was graduated in 1824 with first honors, although the youngest of his class. He then began the study of law.

Career

Within a few months he became preceptor of the academy of Ohio University. Although by incidental study he acquired a thorough knowledge of law and was admitted to the Ohio bar, his life work was devoted without interruption to education.

In 1836 he was promoted to a professorship in Ohio University, where he taught ancient languages, political economy, and constitutional and public law, and also, having declined the presidency, served as vice-president. Secretary of the board of visitors of West Point in 1840, he wrote a report which was favorably reviewed in the North American Review (January 1841).

He left Ohio University in 1843 to accept the chair of languages at Indiana State University, and in 1853-54 performed the duties of the presidency.

As a member of the constitutional convention of Indiana in 1850, he helped to make provision for a large school fund. He also presented to the legislature a plan of education for the state, and, in addition to his regular university work, organized and instructed a class for the training of teachers. Leaving Indiana in 1856, he served for eleven years as professor of mental and moral philosophy in the University of Wsconsin.

In 1866 the presidency of the University of Missouri was offered to him. Inadequate financial support, the effects of the Civil War, and a wide-spread indifference toward higher education had left this university in a deplorable condition. Read made his acceptance contingent upon financial support of the institution by the state. He presented his views on the matter to the board of curators and made a forceful appeal to the legislature.

On March 11, 1867, that body voted its first grant to the university, adding to its income more than $16, 000 annually. The next month, Read accepted the presidency, becoming also professor of mental, moral, and political philosophy. His administration marked a new era in the development of the institution; the old-fashioned liberal arts college with a preparatory department gave way to a real university with professional divisions, including a normal college, agricultural and mechanical colleges, the school of mines (at Rolla), the college of law, the medical college, and the department of analytical and applied chemistry.

Upon his retirement, July 4, 1876, he was made president emeritus. A little more than two years after his work at the university had ended, he died at Keokuk, Iowa.

Achievements

• Read established the College of Education and opened the university to women. He was the first president to live in the president's residence on the David R. Francis Quadrangle.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Memento to the Students of the Indiana University: An Address Delivered Before the Philomathean Society at the Annual Commencement, August 5, 1856

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Connections

He was married, when barely twenty-one, to Alice Brice, the daughter of an Ohio merchant, and was survived by four daughters.

Father:

Ezra Read

Spouse:

Alice Brice

Son:

Gen. Theodore Read

He was killed in the closing days of the Civil War.