author
Eleazar Lord
1788–1871
A self-made New York businessman and religious writer, he moved easily between finance, education, and public debate. He is especially remembered for leading the early Erie Railroad and for publishing forceful works on faith, economics, and society.
1 Audiobook
The Messiah in Moses and the Prophets
by Eleazar Lord
About the author
Born in Connecticut in 1788, Eleazar Lord built a wide-ranging career as a merchant, banker, educator, and author. He helped found what became the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy in Norwich, the school later known as Norwich University, and he was also active in New York business life, including insurance and banking.
Lord is often noted in American history as the first president of the Erie Railroad, a role that placed him at the center of one of the country's most important early transportation enterprises. Alongside his work in business, he wrote on public questions and took a strong interest in religion, serving as a deacon of the First Protestant Dutch Church.
As a writer, he produced books and pamphlets on subjects ranging from missions and political economy to biblical interpretation and the relationship between science and Scripture. He died in 1871, leaving behind the record of a nineteenth-century figure whose work connected commerce, reform, and religious conviction.