John Clark Ridpath

The son had no early educational advantages besides those that he obtained at frontier schools, but his appetite for books was insatiable, and at seventeen he was a teacher.

At nineteen he entered Indiana Asbury College (later DePauw University), where he graduated with the highest honors of his class.

This office he held until 1867, when he was chosen to fill the chair of languages at Baker University, Baldwin City, Kansas.

In 1869 he was elected professor of English literature in Asbury College, and two years later he was assigned to the chair of belles-lettres and history of the same institution.

In 1879 he was elected vice-president of the university, and he was largely the originator of the measures by which that institution was placed under the patronage of Washington C. DePauw, and took his name.