Smith, Edward Parmelee, 1827-1876
Biographical Statement
Edward Parmelee Smith (1827–1876) was a Congregational minister in Massachusetts before becoming Field Secretary for the United States Christian Commission during the American Civil War. In official positions with the American Missionary Association (AMA), he was a co-founder of Fisk University and other historically black colleges established in the South for the education of freedmen. Beginning in 1873, he served as Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1875, he was selected president of Howard University, but died on a trip in Africa in 1876 before taking office.
A native of South Britain, Connecticut, Edward P. Smith, was educated at Dartmouth, Yale, Union Theological Seminary, and Andover. Prior to the Civil War, he pastored a Congregational Church in Pepperell, Massachusetts. He joined the United States Christian Commission during the Civil War, eventually becoming its field secretary in Philadelphia. He joined the American Missionary Association in 1866, serving first as district secretary at Cincinnati and then as general field superintendent. In 1871, he became U.S. Indian Agent to the Pillager and Chippewa tribes in Minnesota. Two years later, President Ulysses Grant appointed him Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He resigned in 1875 and was elected president of Howard University. However, before assuming the Howard presidency, he went to Africa on a special commission for the A.M.A. and died there in July 1876.