Henry Martin Tupper

Henry Martin Tupper
Henry Martin Tupper, founder of Shaw University
Born	(1831-04-11)April 11, 1831 Monson, Massachusetts
Died	November 12, 1893(1893-11-12) (aged 62) Raleigh, North Carolina
Occupation	Baptist minister
Known for	Founder and first president of Shaw University

Henry Martin Tupper D.D. (April 11, 1831 – November 12, 1893) was a Baptist minister who founded Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Beginning with bible and literacy classes in December 1865, it was the first university established for African Americans following the end of the civil war, and the oldest historically black college and university (HBCU) in the Southern United States, as well as one of the oldest co-educational universities in the country. When the institute moved into a new building in 1871, it was renamed as Shaw Collegiate Institute in honor of a major donor. Tupper served as the University's first president from its founding until his death in 1893.

Henry Martin Tupper was born on April 11, 1831 to Earl and Permellia Norris Tupper and raised on a farm in Monson, Massachusetts. He was the eldest of nine children. His grandfather, Ezra Tupper, and great-grandfather, William Tupper, had both fought for the colonies in the American Revolutionary War. His paternal ancestry has been linked to a family of prominent Lutheran dissenters who left Germany and settled in England during the reign of Henry VIII. He was a distant relative of Martin Farquhar Tupper, an English poet of the 19th century. Clergyman Thomas Tupper, an ancestor of Henry Martin Tupper, emigrated from England to Barbados in the early 17th century. He later helped found the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts.

Neither of his parents were practicing Christians nor did Martin attend church as a child. He received little formal education until he turned eighteen, when he enrolled in Monson Academy. He converted to Christianity while at the Academy. In order to fund his continuing education, he took a job as a school teacher in New Jersey, where he was baptised in a nearby Baptist church. Later he joined a congregation in Wales, Massachusetts, near his hometown of Monson.