Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Walden, John Morgan

WALDEN, John Morgan, M. E. bishop, b. in Lebanon, Warren co., Ohio, 11 Feb., 1831. He was graduated at Farmers' (now Belmont) college, near Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1852, and engaged in educational work for two years and in editorial work for four years, during the last year and a half of which he was editor and publisher of a free-state paper in Kansas. He was also a member of the Topeka legislature, and of the Leavenworth constitutional convention at the time of its adoption of a constitution in 1858, under which he was elected superintendent of public instruction. In September of that year he left Kansas and entered, as a minister, the Cincinnati conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, where he occupied several important posts. After a few years he was elected corresponding secretary of the Freedmen's aid commission, an undenominational society. He remained in this office until August, 1866, when, on the organization of the Freedmen's aid society of the Methodist Episcopal church, he was chosen its first corresponding secretary, and he has been officially connected with it ever since, being its president at the present time. In 1868 he was elected one of the publishing agents of the Western Methodist book concern, and he held that post sixteen years. He was a member of every general conference from 1868 till 1884, when he was elected bishop. He is a man of great industry and capacity for business, giving attention to everything that is committed to his care.