Shown in some
publications/listings/stories as E. C. Anderson.
E. C. = Edward Coffin
REV. EDWARD COFFIN ANDERSON
was McMinnville College president, 1881-1887. McMinnville College became
Linfield College in 1922.
Information about the Rev.
Anderson and Anderson family follows.
(In case you wonder,
apparently Edward Coffin Anderson NOT related to Elam J. Anderson, who served
as Linfield College president, 1932-1938. Elam J. Anderson was a great-uncle
of Gordon C. Bjork, Linfield president, 1968-1974.)
=EDWARD COFFIN ANDERSON (served as president of Kansas’ Ottawa University, 1821-1890)
AN OTTAWA UNIVERSITY
(Ottawa, Kansas) PRESIDENT BIOGRAPHY
Edward Coffin Anderson After
his student years, both in the United States and in Europe, he began his long
literary life. He contributed to various literary publications, the most
notable of which was THE DIAL.
Through his contributions to THE DIAL, he became
a friend of Francis Fisher Browne, the Editor, and this long and satisfying
friendship can be traced through the Browne letters contained in the
collection.
Edward Coffin Anderson, the
first member of the family for whom there are extensive records, was born on
Prince Edward Island, Maritime Provinces, Canada, in 1821, the fourth of
thirteen children. His grandfather, John Anderson, had migrated to North
America from Scotland with his brother, David, and son, David. David Anderson,
the son, married Miss Jeanette Coffin, whose father had come to Prince Edward
Island from Nantucket.
Edward Coffin Anderson received his education in Nova
Scotia at Acadia College, and later went to Newton Seminary near Boston for
further theological study. While he was attending Acadia College at Wolfville,
Nova Scotia, he met Miss Helen Best, a teacher in a school for girls.
The Best Family was also of
Scottish descent. Helen's mother, Isabella Playfair, was a daughter of Robert
Lawyer Playfair and a niece of John Playfair, the great mathematician of the
University of Edinburgh. Her mother, Margaret McNevin was said to have been a
brilliant and clever woman.
When John Playfair was contemplating marriage, a
friend advised, If you marry Margaret McNevin, all your children will be
gifted. Isabella was educated at a school for young ladies conducted by her two
aunts in Edinburgh. At sixteen she married Henry Best, of the British Navy, and
they settled in Nova Scotia. They had thirteen children. Later, to help out the
family finances, she established a school for girls in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
Isabella, herself, served as headmistress and two of her daughters, including
Helen Best, were teachers in the school.
In 1850, Helen Best became
the wife of Edward Coffin Anderson and later that same year the young couple
emigrated to the United States where they lived for the rest of their lives.
Anderson, when he finished his training at Newton Seminary, was ordained in the
Baptist Church and began his long career of preaching and teaching.
His first
appointment was at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Edward and Helen Anderson had three
sons, Melville Best Anderson, Robert Playfair Anderson (who died in infancy),
and Edward Playfair Anderson. In January, 1875 the interior of the only
building on the Ottawa campus was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt by the
citizens of Ottawa in only 90 days.4 Classes were held at city hall until the
repair was finished
From Kalamazoo, the family
went to Newton Center, Massachusetts, to Milford, New Hampshire, and back to
Kalamazoo where Mr. Anderson was professor of Classical Languages and acting
president of Kalamazoo Baptist College. From Kalamazoo, they went to Margett,
Michigan where Anderson was pastor. In 1866, the Andersons went to Portland,
Oregon where Anderson assumed the post of pastor of the Baptist Church, and
from there he went to San Jose, California. After a short time in San Jose, the
family returned to the East coast, to Groveland, Massachusetts, where Mr.
Anderson was pastor and also principal of Highlands Academy in Petersburg,
Massachusetts.
He became principal of Ottawa College in Ottawa, Kansas, and
pastor of Lake City Baptist Church in Lake City, Minnesota. About 1880, he
became president of McMinnville College, McMinnville, Oregon, a post he held
for seven years. In 1887, he had a stroke, and died three years later, in 1890,
at the home of his son, Edward Playfair Anderson, in Lansing, Michigan.
The first son of Edward
Coffin and Helen Best Anderson, he was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1851. He
attended Cornell University where, to a great extent, he worked his own way.
...................
=Anderson, Edward Coffin,
1821-1890.
Born 7 May 1821 - Prince
Edward Island, Canada
Died 29 Jan 1890 (aged 68) Michigan, USA
............
=At Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of
Special Collections and University Archives:
Anderson “Family of Scottish-English
origins which came to the United States in the middle of the nineteenth
century. The family settled on the East Coast, later moving West; the Andersons
contributed to society in the fields of theology, education and literature.
Melville Best Anderson was an author, translator and teacher whose particular
interest was the work of Dante. From 1891-1910, he taught in the English
Department at Stanford University, serving as first chairman of the
department."
#
