Edward Parmelee Smith

Edward Parmelee Smith (1827–1876) was a Congregational minister in Massachusetts before becoming Field Secretary for the United States Christian Commission during the American Civil War. In official positions with the American Missionary Association (AMA), he was a co-founder of Fisk University and other historically black colleges established in the South for the education of freedmen. Beginning in 1873, he served as Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1875, he was selected president of Howard University, but died on a trip in Africa in 1876 before taking office.

Born in South Britain, Connecticut in June 1827, Edward Parmelee Smith was educated at New England schools and colleges: Andover, Dartmouth College and Yale University, where he graduated from the Theological Seminary.

Smith married and they had one daughter. His wife always shared his labors; during the American Civil War she worked in hospitals and the field.

Rev. Smith was for some years a pastor at a Congregational Church in Pepperell, Massachusetts. During the American Civil War he expanded his religious work among soldiers as part of the United States Christian Commission. He headed a field division. In 1869 he published Incidents of the Christian Commission, an account of its work in hospitals and on the battlefield.

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