The Biographical Dictionary of America/Abernethy, Alonzo

ABERNETHY, Alonzo, educator, was born in Sandusky county, Ohio, April 14, 1836. He removed to Illyria, Iowa, in 1854, served in the 9th Iowa volunteers, 1861-65, attaining the rank of colonel, and participated in forty battles, being wounded twice. He was graduated at the University of Chicago, A.B., 1866, A.M., 1869. He was a representative in the Iowa legislature in 1866: principal of the Baptist college at Des Moines, Iowa, 1870-71, and a member of the board of trustees from 1871. He was state superintendent of public instruction in Iowa, 1871-76; president and professor of intellectual and moral philosophy in the University of Chicago in 1876, and principal of Cedar Valley seminary at Osage, Iowa, from 1881.