| Leonidas Lent Hamline | |
| Birth Date: | 10 May 1797 |
| Birth Place: | Burlington, Connecticut |
| Death Place: | Mount Pleasant, Iowa |
| Burial Place: | Rosehill Cemetery |
| Occupation: | Clergyman, lawyer |
Leonidas Lent Hamline (pronounced "Hamlin"; 1797–1865) was an American Methodist Episcopal bishop and a lawyer. He is the eponym of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and of Hamline Avenue and Hamline United Methodist Church, also in St. Paul.
Leonidas Lent Hamline was born in Burlington, Connecticut on May 10, 1797.[1] He studied for the ministry, but afterward studied law, and practiced for a while in Ohio. He became a preacher in the Methodist church in 1830. In 1844, when the Methodist church divided over slavery, he was a member of the General Conference, the church's legislative body, and drew up the plan of separation.
He provided US$25,000 of his own money to launch a school, which became Hamline University. A statue of the bishop, sculpted by Michael Price, professor of art, stands on campus.
Hamline was the first editor of the long-running 19th-century Cincinnati-based periodical, The Ladies' Repository, and Gatherings of the West.[1]
He died in Mount Pleasant, Iowa on February 22, 1865, and was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.[1]
A number of his sermons are given in the Works of L. L. Hamline, D. D., edited by Rev. F. G. Hibbard, D. D., (two volumes, 1869).