Eleazar Lord

Eleazar Lord (September 9, 1788 – June 3, 1871) was an American author, educator, deacon of the First Protestant Dutch Church and first president of the Erie Railroad, also known from his literal interpretations of the creation–evolution controversy.

Lord was engage in banking; founded the Manhattan insurance company, and served as its president 1821-34; was the first president of the Erie Railroad company; was a prominent friend of the New York university, and assisted in founding theological seminaries at East Windsor, Connecticut, and Auburn, New York.

His principal works are Principles of currency; Geological Cosmogony: and an edition of Lempriere's Biographical Dictionary, with numerous additions.

Eleazar Lord was born September 9, 1788, at Franklin, Connecticut. His early boyhood was spent among the quiet scenes of that even-tenored rural vicinage, where his elementary education was obtained in the district schools. At the age of sixteen, in 1804, he left home and began life as a clerk in a store at Norwich.

In 1808 he returned home to prepare himself for college, under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Lee, of Lisbon, of whose church (Presbyterian) he became a member in 1809. After two years of preparatory study, he entered Andover Seminary, and remained there three and a half years. While there he time deeply interested in the subject of Foreign Missions, an interest that remained active with him all his life.

He wrote the first pretentious work in the literature of that department of the church ever published in this country : "A History of the Principal Protestant Missions to the Heathen." It was published in 1813 at Boston.

In September, 1812, he was licensed to preach by the Haverhill Association at Salem, New Hampshire. He had no regular charge, but preached acceptably at various places for a year. He entered Princeton College, where for some months he attended the lectures and recitations of that celebrated institution. A serious affection of the eyes compelled him to give up his cherished position in life to devote himself to secular concerns, the exactions of which would not demand the sacrifice of his sight. He engaged actively in commercial and financial affairs, and while giving to them necessarily a large part of his time, his inclinations for religious work and its advancement were not permitted to languish in the slightest degree.

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