12 Facts About Eliphalet Nott

Eliphalet Nott, was a famed Presbyterian minister, inventor, educational pioneer, and long-term president of Union College, Schenectady, New York.

Eliphalet Nott was the second son, and youngest of nine children, born to Stephen Nott and Deborah Nott.

In 1804, at the age of 31, Eliphalet Nott became president of Union College, a role he served in until his death in 1866, during which time more than 4,000 students are estimated to have graduated from Union.

Eliphalet Nott was dissuaded from this by a member of Delta Phi named John Jay Hyde.

Eliphalet Nott's publications include collections of sermons, Counsels to Young Men, and Lectures on Temperance.

In 1814, Eliphalet Nott was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

Eliphalet Nott was an important land speculator and developer, partnering with his nephew Henry Sheldon Anable, buying several farms on the Long Island shore of the East River that became the sites of industrial enterprises.

Eliphalet Nott married Sarah Marie "Sally" Benedict, the daughter of Rev Joel Benedict of Plainfield, Connecticut, under whose instruction in early life he pursued his classical and mathematical studies.

In 1842, a year and a half after the death of his second wife, Eliphalet Nott married the much younger Urania Elizabeth Sheldon, a Troy Female Seminary graduate who was a well-known superintendent of several women's schools and the leader of several local benevolent associations.

Eliphalet Nott died on January 25,1866, in Schenectady, New York, and was buried at the Vale Cemetery in Schenectady.

Eliphalet Nott's widow died on April 19,1886, at age 80.

Eliphalet Nott remains the longest serving college president in the United States to this day.