Dr. Richard Davenport Harlan

Dr. Richard D. Harlan (1894-1901)
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Dr. Richard D. Harlan (1894-1901)
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Dr. HarlanAfter the retirement of Dr. George Patton, there was an interval of nearly a year with pulpit supplies.Thus when Dr. Richard Davenport Harlan of Washington, DC, preached in the morning service on April 8, 1894, the session was so impressed with his ability that, without waiting fort the evening service, they called a congregational meeting for ten days later to invite him to be the pastor.

Though only 35 years of age, he was a man of impressive credentials.The son of John Marshall Harlan, a 34-year old associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, Dr. Harlan's nephew later became the Chief Justice of the court.His sister was a social secretary of Mrs. Harding and Mrs. Coolidge in the White House.Dr. Harlan was valedictorian of his class at Princeton University and a graduate of Princeton Seminary.Ordained in 1886, he served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New York City, leaving that position after four years to study at the University of Berlin.While still at the church, he married a wealthy and aristocratic widow from Geneva, NY.A large man, 6 feet, 6 inches tall, he had correspondingly large ideas.
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In 1901 to the relief of many, Dr. Harlan accepted the presidency of Lake Forest College, a Presbyterian college near Chicago.After six years he went to Washington to take charge of an early movement to establish George Washington University, which unfortunately was not a success at the time.He had not been provident in his use of money, and in the later years of his life, he held a minor government post in Montreal, where his wife conducted a stenography school.