Asa Mahan


Asa Mahan was a U.S. Congregational clergyman and educator and the first president of both the Oberlin Collegiate Institute and Adrian College. He described himself as "a religious teacher and an instructor of youth".
Mahan left us two autobiographical books:

Career

Asa Mahan graduated from Hamilton College in 1824, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1827. On November 10, 1829, he was ordained pastor of the Congregational church in Pittsford, New York, and in 1831 he was called to the pastorate of a Presbyterian church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a trustee of the new Lane Seminary, the only Lane administrator to vote in favor of the students' right to debate "immmediatism", setting all slaves free immediately, versus colonialism, sending them to Africa. When a majority of Lane's students resigned as a group, to end up at Oberlin a year later, he did as well. At the students' insistence he was appointed President of the newly-founded Oberlin Collegiate Institute, simultaneously serving as the chair of intellectual and moral philosophy and professor of theology. The students also insisted, as a condition of their enrollment, that Oberlin admit students of all races, which Mahan's liberal views towards abolitionism and anti-slavery helped get the approval of the reluctant trustees. Oberlin was the second college to admit African Americans; the first was the Oneida Institute, a short-lived predecessor of Oberlin, which did not admit women.
"Hustorians...are in disagreement over the merits of succeeding quarels between Mahan and the Oberlin faculty." Mahan was blunt and tactless, because he was so committed to reform. With hindsight, we can see how Mahan was ahead of the faculty: advocating for fenale equality, and defending those who were for the "immediatist" abolitionism of William Garrison.
In 1844 the faculty "decided they had had enough of him" and attempted to have him removed, but "influential colleagues", including Finney, prevented it. Another attempt in 1847 also failed. In 1850, this time with Finney's support, the faculty prepared a "searing ten-count indictment" of his "overbearing behavior". He resigned. In his place, famed abolitionist and preacher Charles Finney was made president of Oberlin College. Heartbroken, Mahan moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and participated in the founding of Cleveland University, located in the Tremont District of the city, where he was chosen president of the school and also professor of mental and moral philosophy. However, the school had trouble attracting students and went bankrupt after only a few years, and Mahan was forced out.

Pastoral work

In 1855, he resumed pastoral work, and had charge of Congregational parishes at Jackson, Michigan in 1855-57 and at Adrian, Michigan in 1857-60. In 1859 Mahan became the first President of Adrian College, a position he still held in 1873. Mahan moved to Eastbourne, England in 1874, where he published frequently until his death on April 4, 1889.

Personal life

Mahan married Mary Hartwell Dix in 1828, with whom he had seven children. In 1866, he remarried to Mary E. Munsell. His daughter, Mary, would marry Charles Reynolds, who would become a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
Mahan was a "hearty supporter" of the vegetarian Graham diet, and was President of the Oberlin Physiological Society, which supported it. The diet was unpopular at Oberlin.

Works

Mahan was an active advocate of the religious view known as Christian Perfection, and published ' on the subject. His other works include:
The are located in the Oberlin College Archives.