Jonathan Blanchard

Born in 1811, he was an American minister, educator, and outspoken abolitionist who became the first president of Wheaton College in Illinois. Before and during his years in education, he was active in the antislavery movement, using the pulpit and the lecture platform to argue for immediate emancipation and other reforms rooted in his Christian beliefs.

He led Wheaton College from its early years and gave it a strong identity as a school committed to both faith and public responsibility. He was also involved in journalism and religious debate, and he remained a prominent voice in reform circles well into later life.

He died in 1892, remembered as a determined and often controversial figure whose influence reached beyond the classroom into the wider moral and political arguments of his era.