The Biographical Dictionary of America/Ames, Edward Raymond

AMES, Edward Raymond, M. E. bishop, was born at Athens, O., May 20, 1806. In 1828 he entered the Ohio university at Athens, and remained there for two years, earning his board and tuition by teaching. He was the founder of a school at Lebanon, Ill., which afterwards grew into McKendree college. In 1830 he entered the itinerant ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church; in 1832 was ordained deacon, and in 1834 elder. At the general conference held in Baltimore in 1840, he was a delegate, and was afterwards chosen corresponding secretary to the missionary society for the south and west. In 1844 he was elected presiding elder in the Indiana conference, and served in that capacity for eight years. He received the degree of A.M. in 1844 from the State university of Indiana. In 1848 he declined an election as president of Asbury university. He was made a bishop in 1852, and died April 25, 1879.