Edgerton Ryerson
Edgerton Ryerson [1]
an eminent Canadian Methodist minister, was born in the Province of Ontario, Canada, in 1803. He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1823. He received an early classical education preparatory to the study of law, He entered the itinerant work, preaching his first sermon on Easter Sunday, 1825. In 1829 he became the first editor of the Christian Guardian; in 1842 was appointed the first president of Victoria College; and in 1845 was made superintendent of education for the Province of Upper Canada, an office he held for thirty years. On the union of the Wesleyan Methodists, the New Connection, and the Eastern British Conference, he was elected first president of the Methodist Church in Canada. He visited Europe and the United States a number of times in the interests of Methodism and education, and was twice a representative to the British Conference and to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States. He died at Toronto, February 19, 1882. Among his writings, aside from editorial work, may be mentioned his Manual of Agricultural Chemistry: — Compulsory Education: — The Clergy Reserve Question, etc.
