Rev. Erastus Haven

Erastus O. Haven (1820-1881) was a minister and leader of the Methodist Episcopal Church during a vigorous period of its growth and development. The child of a Methodist minister and farmer, he was born in Boston and spent most of his childhood in Massachusetts. Upon graduating from Wesleyan University, Haven established a life-long pattern of combining the ministry with teaching. This eventually led him to assume the presidencies of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University as well as the chancellorship of Syracuse University. Haven was deeply interested in educational issues affecting students at all levels and in helping to develop a strong Methodist presence among institutions of higher learning. His presidency at the University of Michigan, along with an earlier four-year stint there as a Latin professor, forced him to deal with the specific problems of a secular state university. Among the topics he discusses during the Michigan years are hazing, secret societies, fiscal issues and institutional administration. In midlife, Haven left his initial position at Michigan to become editor of Zion's Herald, a Methodist newspaper that gave him a voice in the Church's major controversies over slavery, church polity, and temperance. Later, he resigned the presidency of Northwestern University to become Secretary of the Board of Education for the Methodist Episcopal Church. Haven also served two terms in the Massachusetts Senate and was residing as a bishop in San Francisco when he died, leaving unfinished this autobiography, completed from his writings by the editor.