Eggleston, Edward, 1837–1902, American author, Methodist clergyman, b. Vevay, Ind., educated in frontier schools. Before 1870 he was a Bible agent, a farm worker, a circuit rider in Minnesota and Indiana, and a journalist in Chicago. He then joined the editorial staff of the Independent in New York. He established his literary reputation with The Hoosier Schoolmaster (1871) and The Circuit Rider (1874). He was pastor of the Church of Christian Endeavor, Brooklyn, from 1874 until 1879. Besides writing juvenile stories and historical essays and articles, he completed two volumes of his planned history of American life, The Beginners of a Nation (1896) and The Transit of Civilization (1901).

Bibliography

See The First of the Hoosiers (1903) by his brother, G. C. Eggleston; biography by W. P. Randel (1946).

Eggleston, Edward

(born Dec. 10, 1837, Vevay, Ind., U.S.—died Sept. 4, 1902, Lake George, N.Y.) U.S. novelist and historian. He became an itinerant preacher at age 19; he later held various pastorates and edited several periodicals. He realistically portrayed backwoods Indiana in The Hoosier School-Master (1871). His other novels include The End of the World (1872), The Circuit Rider (1874), Roxy (1878), and The Graysons (1888). He then turned to writing history; his Beginners of a Nation (1896) and Transit of Civilization from England to America (1900) contributed to the growth of the study of social history.