Jeremiah Chamberlain
Centre College President (1822-1826)
Jeremiah Chamberlain was born on January 5, 1794, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Dickinson College, he went on to study at the Princeton Theological Seminary, receiving the doctorate of divinity in 1817. That same year, he accepted a commission from the Presbyterian General Assembly's Board of Domestic missions. Chamberlain chose the south as his area of evangelical work, serving in New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama. By 1818 he was once again in the north, becoming pastor of a church in Bedford, Pennsylvania. Chamberlain was to soon move again, for on December 21, 1822, the trustees of Centre College elected him president. Chamberlain thus has the distinction of being the first person to actually assume the office of president of Centre College.
Chamberlain found a school in grave financial trouble. Although nominally a state institution, the state legislature itself had little interest and even fewer resources to adequately support the struggling college. Even though Presbyterian influence was predominate at the school, the Presbyterian Synod would not offer financial help because it was not officially under control of the church. In 1824 an agreement was reached to amend the original charter to allow exclusive Presbyterian control of Centre. In exchange for a gift of $20,000 to the college, to be given in four annual installments, the Synod was given the right to elect members to the Board of Trustees. The governing control of the institution passed from the state to the Presbyterian Church.
Chamberlain resigned his presidency in 1826 to move to Jackson College in Louisiana. He would serve as president of that school for several years, but resigned that position when the trustees tried to restrict his preaching. A few years later he persuaded the Presbytery of Mississippi to establish a new college in that state, to be named Oakland College. Chamberlain served as its president until his death on September 5, 1851. He was buried in the Oakland College burial grounds.
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