Cobleigh, Nelson Ebenezer, Dd, Lld

Cobleigh, Nelson Ebenezer, D.D., LLD.

a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born at Littleton, N.H., November 24. 1814. He studied in the common school at Newbury, Vermont, and worked his way through Wesleyan University, Connecticut, graduating in 1843. In 1844 he entered the nNew England Conference, and, in 1853, accepted the chair of ancient languages in McKendree College, Illinois. The following year he was elected to the same position in Lawrence University, Wisconsin, and in 1857 was recalled to McKendree College, as president. In 1863 he became editor of Zion's Herald, Boston. Overwork and the rigorous climate obliged him to retire from all active labor in 1867, and he sought the milder climate of East Tennessee, where he was soon elected to the presidency of Wesleyan University, at Athens, Tennessee. In 1872 he was elected editor of the Methodist Advocate, Atlanta, Georgia, in which capacity he labored with marked zeal and ability to the close of his life, February 1, 1874. Dr. Cobleigh was in the truest and highest sense a great and good man. He was intellectually earnest, deeply and uniformly pious, thoroughly devoted to his work, a cheerful, energetic laborer; had few equals as an educator; was pathetic, logical, and powerful as a preacher; as a writer, clear, pure, and graceful. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1874, page 131; Simpson, Cyclop. of Methodism, s.v.