John McClintock (1814-1870)

John McClintock was born October 27, 1814 in Philadelphia to Irish immigrants, John and Martha McClintock. He began as a clerk in his father's store, and then became a bookkeeper in the Methodist Book Concern in New York. Here he converted to Methodism and considered joining the ministry. McClintock entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1832 and graduated with high honors three years later. Subsequently, he was awarded a doctorate of divinity degree from the same institution in 1848.

McClintock joined the Dickinson College faculty in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1836 as a professor of mathematics. In 1840 he became professor of Greek and Latin. In 1847, the town of Carlisle charged him with inciting a riot over slavery. He was tried in the county court and was acquitted. A year later, he resigned from the College and became the editor of the Methodist Quarterly Review. McClintock did not cut all ties with the College and served as a trustee from 1849 to 1859. He also maintained his intellectual career, publishing many educational volumes and texts, especially in classical and theological literature.

McClintock was one of two delegates, along with Bishop Matthew Simpson, to the British Wesleyan Conference in 1857. When he returned, he became the pastor of St. Paul's Church in New York. In 1860, he went abroad again, this time to France as pastor of the American Chapel in Paris. After four years in this post, he returned to serve again as pastor at St. Paul's. McClintock declined the presidency of Wesleyan University in 1851 and of Troy University in 1855. He did accept the position of president at Drew Theological Seminary in 1867 and remained there until his death in 1870.

He married Caroline Augusta Wakeman in 1836, became a widower on March 2, 1850 and married Catherine Wilkin in 1851. He had a son, John Emory McClintock, born in 1840, and a daughter, Augusta McClintock, born in 1843. John McClintock died March 4, 1870.