Thomas Cleland

Rev. Thomas Cleland, D.D., Presbyterian clergyman, served on the first Board of Trustess of Centre College from 1819 to 1827. Cleland was born May 22, 1778, in Fairfax County, Virginia. In 1789 his parents settled in Washington County, Kentucky. He was educated under private tutors, at Kentucky Academy, Woodford County, and at Transylvania University. He was licensed to preach at Danville in 1803, and began his ministry at Lebanon, then Hardin's Creek; was ordained over New Providence and Harrodsburg Churches in 1813, and continued in charge of the Church in Harrodsburg for twenty-six years, and at New Providence for forty-five years. He received for his entire ministerial services a merely nominal fee. Many young men prepared for the ministry under him. In the great controversy in his Church, he sided with the New School. He was one of the most able and influential ministers of his Church in Kentucky. He published quite a number of controversial and other works, mainly on the doctrines of Christianity. He died January 31, 1858. He had four sons, two of whom became Presbyterian ministers.

Source: "Thomas Cleland." The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Kentucky. Cincinnati, Ohio : J.M. Armstrong, 1878