The New Student's Reference Work/Pearsons, Daniel Kimball

Pear′sons, Daniel Kimball, an American philanthropist, was born at Bedford, Vt., April 14, 1820. He graduated in medicine at Woodstock, Vt., and practiced in Chicopee, Mass., until 1857. He became a farmer in Ogle County, Ill., in 1857, but in 1860 removed to Chicago, where he rapidly accumulated a large fortune in real estate. For some years he served the city as alderman, and assisted in managing its financial budgets. He was best known through his large gifts to educational eleemosynary institutions, the Presbyterian Hospital of Chicago and Chicago Theological Seminary (Congregational) being especially favored. There are few of the smaller colleges to which he did not give from $25,000 to $250,000, and his gifts run well up into the millions. He died April 27, 1912.