Thomas Emerson Bond (1782-1856)

A member of the Dickinson College Board of Trustees from 1833 until 1835, Thomas Emerson Bond, Sr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland in February 1782. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and later earned his M.D. from the University of Maryland. Declining to teach at that institution, he began a private medical practice. He later became the first President of the Board of Visitors of the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. Bond’s days as a physician were limited, however, as he obtained his preacher's license shortly thereafter. He was actively involved in the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal church and is best known for his work as a minister and writer.

Bond’s flair for writing led to the publication of many religious works including An Appeal to the Methodists, in 1827; occasionally his articles were also published in the Methodist Quarterly. In support of the church, he edited The Itinerant, a Baltimore newspaper. From 1840 to 1848, and again from 1852 until his death in 1856, Bond held the position of editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal in New York City, a position he shared with his son for a number of years. His son, Thomas Emerson Bond, Jr., gained fame as one of the founders of modern dental pathology, renown for his book A Practical Treatise on Dental Medicine, the first textbook on dental pathology. Thomas Emerson Bond, Sr. died on March 14, 1856 in New York City.